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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-skates/daniel-7-in-light-of-current-events/
I ask you to turn back to the Old Testament, the book of Daniel, where really we're going back to the future. Chapter 7, Daniel chapter 7, please. I won't be speaking about the great I Am, but we will be reading about the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7.
Now, maybe I should start with a confession. I have taken up prophecy in different places before, with the chart and so on, and I've actually spoken in chapter 7 before, but I've had to change my mind.
Preacher's allowed to do that once in a while, isn't he? Let's read then from verse 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.
Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, four winds of the heavens strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings.
I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, notice this change that takes place, and it was lifted up from the earth and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it, between the teeth of it, and they said thus unto it, arise, devour much flesh.
After this, I beheld, and lo, another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl, notice, not an eagle, but a fowl. The beast had also four heads, four is the number of, the universal number, and dominion was given to it.
After this, I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth and devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it.
It was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, or, an equally valid reading is, were in front of it, the other three that were in front of it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots, and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.
I beheld, till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. Notice the similarity of this description of God and the Lord Jesus, the description given in Revelation chapter 1.
We'll read on. The hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horns speak, I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.
Now notice verse 12 in particular. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. They're still in existence, even after the fourth one is destroyed.
For a season and a time. Interesting. And then he saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the 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 unto him dominion and glory and a kingdom, and all people, nations and languages should serve him. Dominion. There's languages in the Millennium. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Now interpretation is given to Daniel. He focuses in upon the fourth kingdom. Notice verse 23. And he said, the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth.
This is a global empire. And shall tread it down and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise. Understand the ten-part kingdom during the first half of the tribulation period.
And another shall arise after them. And he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings, and he shall speak great words against the Most High, and he shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws.
And they shall be given into his hand until a time one year, and times two years, and the dividing of times a half year, the last three and a half years of the tribulation period. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his kingdom to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom unto the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. And all dominions shall serve and obey him.
That'll be our reading. We trust with the Lord's blessing. I simply want to impress our hearts this morning with the lateness of the hour. We do believe, at least we know, about the imminence of the Lord's return when he will come to the air to rapture his people home.
We know that, don't we? Do we believe it? The at-any-moment return of the Lord Jesus to take us out of this world altogether. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. It could happen at any moment. At any moment.
Now then, what I want you to notice with me—I tried to stress it in the reading. From verse 12, you will see that once the beast is destroyed, that fourth empire given to the burning flame, these other three that are mentioned at the beginning of the chapter are still in existence.
So, I take it that what we have here in this chapter, then, is a picture, a prophecy about conditions that will pertain during the seven-year tribulation period. These first three beasts are existing at the same time and are contemporaries with this fourth one.
They stand before it. You see that in verse 7. So then, if the Lord was to come at this moment, and very shortly thereafter the seven-year tribulation period was to begin, what is there in the world today that would answer to these beasts?
Now, traditionally, these have often been looked at in a similar way to chapter 2 and the metals that are presented there in the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw. And he was told, Thou, O King, art that head of gold.
Then there would arise three subsequent kingdoms after him, consecutively. So, you would have the Medes and Persians, then you would have the Greeks, then you would have a fourth one that is not named in the book of Daniel, with ten toes.
And the normal way of looking at it, and I've done it in the past, is to see that those four metals represent four kingdoms, and here we have another view of that same picture in this chapter. I've already tried to stress with you that those three beasts at the beginning of chapter 7 are contemporary with the fourth.
That's different, isn't it? So what is there today in this world that would answer, perhaps, can't be dogmatic, that would answer to these beasts? The lion and the eagle's wings. The lion is the symbol, it was the symbol of the British Empire.
You'll still see it in Great Britain today. The lion is used many times in coats of arms and it's the motif of Britain. The British Empire diminished greatly towards the end of the 1800s and into the early 1900s.
Very significantly, at that time, the U .S. began to arise. The U .S., the symbol is the eagle. The explosion and the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898 initiated the Spanish-American War and it went on to give the U .S. dominance in Latin America and later, as well, there was the Philippines War.
And the United States went from becoming just a newly founded country to being a medium regional power at that time. Now throughout the 1900s then, there was the First World War and the U .S. played an important part in that, the Second World War, until the Cold War came and Russia went down and Mr. Reagan proclaimed, Mr. Gorbachev, take down this wall, likely the high-water mark of the United States of America.
I think from that time, the U .S. has been in decline somewhat. So what I'm suggesting is, as others have, that the lion represents Britain, the eagle's wings representing the U .S. and somehow, during the tribulation period, there is an alliance formed between them so that they merge almost as one beast.
But there's a change that takes place. The wings are plucked, a man's heart is given to it, singleness of purpose. It's made to stand upon its feet like a man, a humanitarian stance. Instead of a ferocious beast, a predator, now it looks like it's more humanitarian in its stance.
What could bring that about? Some have suggested that it could be an implosion of moral decay and the proliferation of drugs, not only in the U .S. but in Britain as well. Not merely in the cities anymore, but in rural areas.
Or perhaps it could be a nuclear attack. It could be perhaps a crippling of the electronic infrastructure, either by hacking or by a massive EMP attack. Whatever it could be, there's a change that's brought about.
Imagine the U .S., imagine the U .K. with no electronics. Hardly bears thinking about. But something happens that causes the lion and the eagle to be united in a single alliance. What about the bear then?
Behold, another beast, a second like to a bear, and it raised itself up on one side. If you have a revised version, notice the margin. It made for itself one dominion, made for itself one dominion. The bear, the Russian bear, universally that is the symbol of Russia.
The Russian bear has a ferocious appetite. It's heavy, it's ungainly in its movements. But you'll notice the angelic controllers of the nations, they say, arise, devour, much flesh. Expansionist in its policies.
And whether you look at Tsarist Russia, back in the day, or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Russian Federation to this day, you see these characteristics. And you notice that in the mouth of it are three ribs.
Now, Mr. Allen, Mr. Jim Allen, writing on this in a book that was published in 2013, he made a very interesting comment about the three ribs in the mouth of it. He said this, it bites off more than it can chew.
That's before the incident over in the Ukraine. It bites off more than it can chew. Interesting. So perhaps the bear is referring to Russia and its expansionist policies. Now, what about the leopard then?
Well, the interesting thing about the leopard is this. In the Hebrew, there's no separate word for leopard or tiger. Simply indicates a big cat. And the word for spots, Isaiah uses the word leopard, and it kind of changes spots and so on.
There, the idea of spots is literally dripping, dripping. So you can get through dripping, you can get spots, but you can also get stripes. It is suggested that the leopard or the tiger is a representation of China.
Four wings. Four is the universal number of a fowl. What's the symbolism of a fowl in scripture? How often would I have gathered thee as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings. Protection. And you have four heads.
Universal intelligence. A universal influence. Universal intelligence. Universal protection for its peoples. If it is China, you can certainly see those features even to this day. There is a major trading bloc that we seldom ever hear about here in the U .S. in the news media.
How many have heard about BRICS? B-R-I-C-S. It's an acronym. B stands for Brazil. R stands for Russia. I is India. C is China. And S is South Africa. Now, in August of this year coming, they will meet in South Africa to consider the addition of five more members to those existing five.
And to be included is Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and Argentina. I don't know how many of you noticed, but earlier in March there was an agreement, a peace treaty that was entered into between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
They were always hostile one to another, Sunni and Shiite Muslims. But the broker of that deal was the U .S.? No. China. Those oil-producing countries are now considering moving away entirely from the U .S. dollar as the international reserve currency to the Chinese yen or yuan, however you say that.
Now, Xi Jinping, Chinese leader, he said this following that agreement that was made. It was a speech that he gave on Monday the 20th of March this year. He said China should actively participate in the reform and construction of the global governance system and promote global security initiative that will add positive energy to the world peace and development.
I noticed the other day UN leaders are pushing for a greater global governance in emergencies and are presently working on plans for a summit of the future to be held by the General Assembly in September this year, and China is a major influencer at the UN.
I think we should find that very interesting at the least. What about military might, the might of China? Recently that was in the news too. China's expansion is a nuclear arsenal. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, testifying before the Appropriations Committee in Washington, recently said that China's expansion is most disturbing.
It's the most disturbing development that he has seen in his five decades long career. He said China's development is into a top level nuclear power and that is a major issue. He says, I don't think I've seen anything more disturbing in my career than the Chinese ongoing expansion of their nuclear force.
That expansion and that they're undertaking puts us into a new world that we have never lived in before where you have three powers, three great powers essentially, with large arsenals of nuclear weapons, three.
He has in mind the US, Russia, and China. I find that interesting and if that equates with what we have here in these chapters, I want to impress upon our hearts the lateness of the hour, the at any moment coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when very quickly the stage that is set for the tribulation period could fall into place and these events could reach their fulfillment.
But Daniel beheld till the thrones were cast down and the Ancient of Days did sit. Isn't it marvelous to know that the Ancient of Days from everlasting is to everlasting and he is in control. He is still the great I Am.
He still has the overarching control of events that must surely come to pass and he is our God and he has his king lined up. Psalm 2, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me, sit thou at my right hand until.
Brethren, we are right there in that until. Until every enemy is put down under him. And to him there is given dominion and the kingdom and the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and it shall never be destroyed.
They shall possess the kingdom forever and forever. Marvelous to know that as those who are redeemed, it's good to know that we're ready for that moment when the Lord comes. I believe if that really gripped our hearts, it would change our whole outlook in life and the longing of our hearts would surely be even so come Lord Jesus.
Lord bless this word to our hearts.