What is...? The Eschatology of Hope- Daniel 2

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We want to Teach God's Word. We want to together to grow up in all things, which is Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15 speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in all aspects. Into him who is the head even Christ?

So that's what we want to do. Dan is with me again and our series that we're doing together is what is. So we're looking at different things in scripture and asking the question. What is what is this?

What is that? We want to try to explain it talk about it answer questions if you have any questions. If you if you've said to yourself, what is this or what is that? Give us a comment send us a message and we'll try to answer those questions if we can.

We've been spending some time on eschatology eschatology is simply the study of last things. We have been talking about eschatology seems like we've been trying to do every other video about eschatology and what we've decided to do now is Look in the book of Daniel.

Daniel is where we get a lot of prophecies from and. And of course other books of the Old Testament but Daniel is one of those and hopefully we'll have a chance to the Lord willing to look look at all the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning in in things in times eschatology.

Let me go we'll go ahead and get started I'll go ahead and give a little bit of an introduction. If you start in Daniel chapter 1, this is where we're introduced to Daniel and his three friends. They are they are part of the the captivity.

They're part of the Jewish nation. They're in captivity in in Babylon and.

The.

Some of the healthy good-looking men are rounded up by the king and They're given this diet. They're prescribed this diet by the king. And so all the all these men that are rounded up are given this diet a certain drink certain food that they are to eat.

But Daniel says no, we're not going to defile our bodies with with this certain drink this certain food. We're going to honor God and eat this other way. Long story short they come out healthier on the other end and.

They.

They move up in ranks. They're they're respected. Their names are changed. They're given new names through all this and then in chapter 2 begins Begins our look our journey through prophecy. The king himself has a dream and he needs an interpretation of this dream.

And what happens is he he calls for it says in between what version you have? I have the New American Standard I think it's an older version of American Standard, but but mine says the king gives orders to call for his magicians conjurers sorcerers and Chaldeans and We can also interpret those some of those words as astrologers.

So he calls them in and he wants an interpretation for his dream, but he gives them this task of Not just interpreting their dream because he they they ask him king Give us the dream and we'll give you the interpretation, you know, don't worry about that.

We'll give you the interpretation. Just just give us the dream. The king is like Not so fast you tell me what the dream was and you give me the interpretation and they're like But there's nobody that can do that.

Only God where's that? Verse 10 the Chaldeans answered the king and said There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king in as much as no great king or ruler has Ever asked anything like this of any magician conjurer or Chaldean.

Moreover the thing which the king demands is difficult and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except.

God's and.

So it's only It's only a God that would that could be there in human flesh present with them that would be able to Do what he's asking them to do to tell him what his dream is and give him the interpretation so I guess this will be called common grace in my mind where Ultimately if you peel back all the layers.

If you get down to the bottom of things even these conjurers and magicians and sorcerers. They realize there there's only certain there's only we have limitations. We can only go so far and and we we need Someone Outside of ourselves to come in and of course this we can we can start pointing to Christ at this point and look to him.

But God sent him because he was outside Of us and we needed an alien righteousness. We need God to come down and rescue us. But this is where it gets interesting for me and this is where it was shocking for me.

Maybe maybe it would be shocking for you, but I want to flip over to Matthew just for a second. Not really gonna physically flip there, but in my mind and if you'll go with me Matthew chapter. Well, I'm gonna have to put their Matthew chapter 2.

Yeah Matthew chapter 2 what do we have in Matthew chapter 2? We have the account of The wise men who are who come from the east who see his star. The the Messiah that had been prophesied they follow his star and of course, you know the story.

They find Jesus and worship him. Because they followed his star they they knew about his birth, which was to come. It's interesting to me that There's very little said Year after year. We come we come upon Christmas December and and very little is said about the Magi other than They must have been astrologers because they they studied the stars and they come from the east, you know.

Not really sure what country so we kind of leave them on the peripheral of the story. Because there's so much mystery to it but if you look at Daniel and You read the next verse. I read verse 10 verse 11 of chapter 2.

But if you read verse 12 It shed some light on the subject and it did for me it's verse 12 says because of this the King became indignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon all the wise men of Babylon.

If if we believe that scripture is consistent if we believe that we can Interpret scripture with scripture if we can look at the Old Testament to help us understand the New Testament. Especially when it comes to prophecy and in in things.

Then we can see here I believe we can make that connection that Here are the wise men that Matthew was referring to the the work and also the words or some of the Qualifications or or occupations that they had could be interpreted as astrologers same as the wise men in Matthew.

And here Daniel had a connection with these guys and as Daniel grew in respect and authority in the his wisdom was made known to them and so He had to have shared with him the the Old Testament. The other prophecies and and the prophecies here that he gives that he writes down and This this is my opinion, I want to share my opinion Dan and I've talked about this briefly.

But I think there's a reason why that part of the story is left out year after year. Because I think it messes with. If you go down a certain Eschatological path, I Believe that there's a fear that making this connection with the wise men in Matthew and the wise men in Daniel.

Then it will it will throw a wrench in your in times Understanding and what do I mean by that? Well, eventually we're going to get to Daniel chapter 9. But Daniel chapter 9 he gives us some numbers and if you follow those numbers You'll find that Daniel prophesies of the Messiah to come and his his birth and and when he will When he will be when he when he will die.

In other words, Daniel uses the word cut off Daniel prophesies this of the Messiah to come and if you follow it out, I think it's The numbers begin the counting begins at the rebuilding of the the temple.

If I'm correct on that and then you follow that through you make that connection. Is that correct the rebuilding of the temple. I I think that's what I read.

It depends on who you talk to. A lot of a lot of folks will start the The countdown when Israel becomes a nation they say one generation from that point. Which generation is now meant. 40 years 60 years 80 years.

Closing in on. Well closing in on. 80 years. Coming up soon 1949 to well 1929's. It'll be here before you know it. Yeah. And then Supposedly at that time there or whatever time one generation is the temple will be rebuilt.

The land will be reclaimed and all of these things will we get started.

Or so so some say yeah, yeah, and that would be the those that hold to that in times Position that I was referring to.

That.

They this type of interpretation. Looking at or making the connection with the wise men and Daniel may throw a wrench in in that position. If you look at Daniel chapter 9 the last two verses. That position tells you that It's talking about the the tribulation.

The if you're familiar with the first three years There's is going to be peace and then the Antichrist is is will make a covenant and then he's gonna break the covenant. Then there'll be three years of of tribulation.

Well, the last they say the last two verses of Matt of Daniel chapter 9 speak to those seven years and. But if you were to make the connection with the wise men and Matthew the wise men and Daniel you follow the numbers to the T.

Follow them directly. You'll see that Daniel chapter 9 is speaking of the Messiah and Not the Antichrist. It is speaking of his His death and where he he puts an end to sacrifice. Because he himself is the sacrifice.

I don't want to say too much more about it because we are going to get to Daniel chapter 9. But I just wanted to point out from now on when Christmas approaches when? December approaches and you talk about the wise men.

Flip back through and look at Daniel read it for yourself. If you would you consider yourself? A pre-millennial Dispensationalist Dan and I wanted to ask you. How do you make that connection? How do you see this?

How do you connect the dots with with Daniel chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2. Daniel chapter 9? How would you connect all those dots? We'd love to hear from you. But my opinion I think it throws a wrench in that Theology and I was excited to see That I could make another connection with the Old Testament and the New Testament with Daniel 2 and Matthew 2.

So enough of that. I hope that was encouraging. Hope that was interesting to you, but but Daniel Tells the the the general he says Put a stop to it. Hold up. I can't do it, but my God can and So give me a chance and so that's where we are.

That's where we want to start with this prophecy Of end times is Daniel giving credit to God for being able to Tell him what his dream is and being able to interpret that dream and I want to turn it over to Dan and he's going to walk us through the scripture here in Daniel chapter 2 as Daniel interprets the King's dream and Dan's going to tell us why it's important and how it's how it points us to.

Eschatology right. Daniel is going to interpret Daniel as Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar. That's right. You start off in in verse 31 what you see is this this is important. You do. You do not want to miss this.

It's it's simple enough. To just read through it as a recounting of what happened, but you don't want to miss. Especially but the point that Robert brought up just a second ago the other other.

God's.

Servants the priests of the false gods.

Said.

You have to tell us what the dream is. There is no way that that anyone who lives with mortal flesh is going to know What's going on. We need a God. We need someone from the other realm who deals in dreams on a daily basis.

To tell us these things we we can't we can't climb up inside of your head and I know that's true because I'll have. My five-year-old tell me a dream sometimes and even after he tells me I don't know what he's talking about.

So to have somebody out there say you need to tell me what my dream means and you need to tell me what my dream.

Is.

It is nothing short of the hand of God Giving Daniel the information that he has. So when we recount this this is a supernatural experience that Daniel is having as he is giving the That this is what Daniel was revealed by God.

So as Daniel speaks Daniel is speaking as a mouthpiece for God. So we need to pay close attention because this is really what we're seeing here is God speaking to Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel. So here's what he says.

You Oh King. We're looking and behold. There was a single great statue. He's talking about a great statue that was sitting there in in his dream. Which was large and extraordinary and of extraordinary splendor was standing in front of you.

This appearance was awesome. This is a cool thing. It was huge is amazing. Imagine going to the Statue of Liberty for the third for the first time. I've actually never been but been close to it, but never never seen it.

But apparently it's just absolutely amazing. The head of that statue was made of fine gold and its breast and its arms of silver its belly and its thighs of bronze. And its legs basically from its calves down and its feet partly of iron and clay and you continued looking until a stone cut without hands.

Until a stone was cut without hands and it struck the statue on its feet of the iron and the clay and crushed them. In other words, he saw a. He saw a larger stone and.

No.

Person walked up to it but I don't know maybe laser beams or just it just happened maybe just separated somehow a Chunk of that rock. Some Piece of stone cut without hands raised up and smashed this statue on the feet.

Where was I. 35. And then the iron and the clay and the bronze and the silver and the gold were crushed all at the Same time and became like chaff. From the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found.

But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. So that's what we're working with here. That's what we need to interpret. And that would be difficult If Daniel didn't give us more than that, which he does he like walks us through it.

Like we don't have to guess at these things. We don't have to say well gold's important. Maybe it was some big King coming later. Maybe there's ours from Russia. We don't have to do any of that.

He.

Actually tells us of the succession of the kingdoms that are coming and What these different precious metals and clay down at the bottom. What they all mean. In this vision, like what is this stone that was cut without hands that came and smashed it crushed it.

What does all this mean. And he starts right in in the next verse? This was the dream. Now we will tell you that it's interpretation before the King you owe King our King of Kings to whom The God of heaven has given the kingdom the power the strength and the glory.

He was top dog. His Empire was the biggest Empire in the world. He was like so many others that gone before him the Pharaohs. Caesar to come later we think of Napoleon. What Hitler was trying to be? This great Emperor of a world superpower.

That was Nebuchadnezzar. He was the top dog. And he says God puts you there and Here's what he has to say to you.

And.

Wherever the sons of men dwell. Or the beast of the field or the birds of the sky. He has given them into your hand and caused you to rule over them. You are the head of gold. Know that I probably feeling pretty good about himself from the gold.

That's amazing. Gold is very Precious. I like gold. No, he's a king. He of course he likes gold. He wants to put it all into his storehouses and on his fingers and on his crown and put it over the Throne and on the capitals of the the pillars and all sorts of different stuff.

But after that says after you He's everything away is saying let's go back to me. Let's go back to the old King. King gold head over here. But it real quickly says and after you will arise another kingdom.

Uh-oh.

What's happening to my kingdom? Let's read on. After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you then a third kingdom of bronze. Which will rule over all the earth. So there's two other kingdoms coming the one that takes you over.

It's gonna rule for a little bit and then he'll be taken over by somebody else. And then it says right here in verse 40. Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron. So even those other two that took you over somebody else is going to take them over.

They're represented by the bronze which is like from calves down. It was bronze or not bronze iron. In as much as iron crushes and shatters all things. So like iron that breaks into pieces that will crush and break all these in pieces.

It was going to crush all of the world governments that had come before it. And that you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron. It will be a divided kingdom. No, it's this fourth kingdom the kingdom that comes directly after the first two.

Will be or the first three that fourth kingdom will be a divided kingdom. It will be a kingdom mixed of iron and clay. It'll have the toughness of iron. And in as much as you saw the iron mixed with common clay.

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 brittle and in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay. They will be combined one with another in the seat of men.

But they will not adhere to one another even as iron does not combine with pottery. So it's actually getting pretty specific here now. We need to back up a second if we're gonna actually look at what he's trying to say.

He identified the first kingdom the first kingdom the kingdom of gold is Babylon. It is represented by Nebuchadnezzar the king the head of Babylon. So this head of gold is the Babylonian Empire. We know from Daniel.

Five.

Hold on a second. I'm gonna make sure before I tell you it's right here. Yeah, Daniel. Five that the Medo-Persian Empire comes in.

Wow.

One of the king's descendants is Nebuchadnezzar is gone. He's he's handwriting on the wall. He says you know, he's drinking out of the the things from the temple getting drunk having a feast to his gods and.

This hand comes and writes on the wall. Hand that writes on the wall.

Basically.

Tells him that your kingdom is going away and it's gonna go tonight and The the Medo-Persian Empire was actually staged outside. They came in through the Sewer system or the water system. So how they infiltrated The Babylonian Fortress and killed everyone.

They took over the kingdom that night. So if we follow from there that gives us kind of the Rosetta Stone it helps us to know. Which superpower started it? Which one took over next which one was after that which one was after that.

Then it's just a matter of following the history books. You have the top of the head of gold being Babylon. The silver then is the Medo-Persian Empire. The bronze which comes next is Greece. And the after the Greek Empire comes the Roman Empire the Roman Empire being that fourth Kingdom now listen to the description of it again.

Verse 43 and then that you saw the iron mix with common clay. They'll be combined one with another in the seat of men. In other words, there's going to be intermarriage cross old tribal lines and and old nations.

People who had at one time been a separate people are going to be lumped together under this Roman Empire. But they will not adhere to one another in other words, they're gonna be lumped together. They're going to be one nation they're going to be one people but They don't want to be.

It's like the people up in Macedonia still aren't gonna like the people down in Palestine. The people in Rome still aren't gonna like pretty much everybody else. As far as they go. You go up into the territory of the barbarians and you go.

Everywhere you go in the Roman Empire. There's a different people group there. Those other people groups don't lose their national identity quickly. We see that truth even in our nation today we have one big melting pot here in America and From time to time.

Especially now you see flaring up between these people who came from different areas of the world who just for whatever reason Don't like each other. They'll fight with each other. It's something that that happens and that was one of the things that characterized this kingdom.

Now listen to what it says in verse 44 in the days of those Kings. Let's just stop what Kings? Those Kings made the ones he just talked about we've got Nebuchadnezzar. You've got.

I'm.

Blanking on a Medo-Persian King who one of those coming next Alexander the Great his nation actually split up into four that's actually prophesied here in the next couple chapters. You got the Roman Empire that comes right after that and it says in the days of those Kings.

So in the days of the Roman Empire the God of heaven Will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. There are many people who say that the kingdom of God is going to be future. It's going to be in the Millennium.

This is wrong. Because it says right here in the days of those Kings God will set up a kingdom. This is why Jesus came with that language of The kingdom of God is in your midst. The kingdom of heaven is a hand or John the Baptist to repent the kingdom of heaven is a hand.

Jesus saying Um the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It's gonna start all small and then grow and then everybody's gonna come and hang out in the branches. Starts like a little bit of leaven.

It's gonna get in To the bread and it's gonna permeate and it's gonna go away. It happened then in the days of those Kings. He will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. And so the kingdom was set up now.

I'm not going to try to Say that those world powers and kingdoms were All the way done away with then I'm not gonna say that the kingdom of God came in like a roaring lion. And I don't think Jesus would either but what it was is it was established there and was established small was established with Christ on the cross paying for the sins of men and When he established that kingdom, he said of it the gates of hell will not prevail against it now.

I've brought this up to a few different people but gates are not an offensive weapon. You do not shoot a gate. You don't drive a gate over something a gate is a weapon of defense. It's a weapon where it like you're behind it because this is your last stand so to speak.

You're there and you have to protect what's behind it. Those gates will not prevail they won't hold up against the kingdom of God. Meaning that that little tiny kingdom of God that started with no 12 believers one of them a devil and then the hundred and twenty in the upper room three thousand.

So you're figuring if just if you do that math three thousand one hundred and thirty One. Yeah thirty one people. So many years ago. So today you have Christianity spread abroad over the face of the entire globe.

It started small. The kingdoms of the earth couldn't stop it. Now Jesus did tell us the kingdom is not of this world. It's of a different nature. It's one that It permeates everything it gets into everything.

It was a Solomon said He said look at the lizards there can they can be caught easily in the hand, but they're even in Kings palaces think of The Christian like that. We're easy to pick off one by one man.

We're everywhere. You can't get rid of us. We're going to be around. Let's see it is yeah, let me go back. Let me finish. I got caught up.

In.

Those days in the days of those Kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. That kingdom will not be left for another people. In other words the people that it's established with it will be their kingdom forever and ever.

And.

Left another people it will crush and it will put to an end all these kingdoms. But it will itself endure forever. So we are the lizard people oh my goodness. I Thought that was Zuckerberg anyway. Man that made me lose my train of thought.

Let's see. Not be left to another it will crush and we'll put an end to all these Kings. But in itself will endure forever. So what are we looking for this kingdom to do that was established at the time of the Roman Empire this kingdom of God?

We're expecting it to take over the earth plain and simple. We're not now we temper that with what Jesus has said. Jesus has said that the kingdom is not of this world of the kingdom is. It doesn't fight the same way that other kingdoms.

Do it's not one that takes over its enemies through Destruction in the sense of using bombs and guns and knives and booby traps and that sort of thing it takes it over through either the crushing of a system by it's just falling apart in and on its in on itself or through the drawing of a people to God into that kingdom by having God you think of the old That movie 300 not all of it good, but the part where that King thinking he's a God.

Talking to those men saying if you'll just you know give up and worship me I'll bring you into my fold and you can you know be good except God is nothing like that guy. He he is actually sent his son to die on the cross for sins.

And you know he's calling out to his enemies any single one of you who will turn from your sins and come To me for forgiveness and sins will find it. You will not be made a second-class citizen. You will join the kingdom of God on full standing you will find your citizenship here in the kingdom of God.

Because your nation and the way your nation is trying to do things is sinful, and it's falling apart. So what is going to happen. God is? Recreating the earth he's remaking it in his To his specifications, and he's doing so by putting down the things that men are building up and he's doing it in such a Incredibly loving and gracious way that sometimes people Presume upon it in ways that they shouldn't.

Even Peter says no. Why should I fear God? You know he says it He's gonna come and judge me. He's been saying that for a long time now. Why do I need to worry about it? He's like oh one day with God is like a thousand years.

God is uh he's not willing that any should perish, but he's going to bring all of his repentance. So back to this Prophecy and as much as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain Without hands and it crushed the iron and the bronze and the clay and the silver the great God has made known to the king.

Remember it was important to know this is God speaking where the the Magi and the others could not. The great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future. So the dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.

So what we're looking for in this prophecy. Is that at the time of the Roman Empire? We're looking for a kingdom to be established. This is what Jesus said he did this is what so The kingdom of God that was promised was prophesied it came on time.

It came as it was promised and it came in the way that God said that it would it came in.

With.

Incredible power it saw lives changed it raised the dead it.

Yeah.

Raised the dead. I mean I was trying to go bigger than that like let's just stop on that for a second. It doesn't it doesn't get much more like you don't see that every day, right? That's why it's such a big deal, you know, Donald and Connell were telling Richard Dawkins on that one Video he said you can't Use the evidence of Jesus rising from the dead because people don't rise from the death.

Oh, well, yeah, except for all those people who did rise from the dead. It's pretty spectacular. It doesn't happen every day. That's why it's such a big deal when people actually rise from the dead. So when Jesus rose from the dead, he didn't just rise himself.

This is something that's not brought up a lot. But there were people in the graves in Jerusalem at the time who got up and walked around like these folks they weren't dead very long in their life came back to them.

Yeah.

Amazing power of God shown That even death didn't hold over. The kingdoms of darkness had absolutely no power. The kingdom of God had come. It was established the temple veil was rent in two and God had come among men.

He died for the sins of people. Um, that is the prophecy Here in Daniel. That's what we're looking for. We're looking for that kingdom that comes and takes over the earth. It's been given to Christians.

We will not ever go away and We will take over the earth through the preaching of the gospel and the worship of God. I Mean now it's something the Crusaders got that wrong.

They.

Was it some trust in chariots some trust in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God. They didn't trust in the name of the Lord their God. They trusted in their Chariots and horses, right?

We don't do that. We trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ. No, it says we will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Yeah, that is what we're to expect. That's what we get from Daniel to.

That's right.

The the scripture reference has left me but this stone that was cut out out of the mountain to To knock down this statue. What's the scripture reference that says this. The stone will become a great mountain.

You're talking about the psalm. Yeah, it says. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and it will become a great mountain. I believe I.

Could be conflated. I'll have to find it. Okay. The script reference just just left me but uh. Wrapping up Daniel chapter 2 here.

The.

The question was kind of posed to me the other night. As I'm introducing people to this this eschatology that is not familiar to many. The question is often Posed to me and and I think it would it it would be a very common question, you know.

How do I respond if this is if this is true? Okay, let's let's look at the emphasis that that Dan put on verse 44. And in the days of those Kings the the God of heaven will set up a kingdom. Okay, so that's what we're looking for this kingdom to be set up in the days of those Kings.

So what we're doing is we are interpreting the Bible Literally in other words according to the literature. The way it is telling us to interpret it and so we are looking for God to set up this kingdom.

Not at a future date after a large gap, but in the days of those Kings now. We we introduced this To somebody it's introduced to me. It's introduced to Dan. It's introduced to whoever and and we're like, okay, this is.

This is different than what I've heard. So what is my response then? What am I to be looking for because on one hand you have? You know the one position, of course, they're very evangelistic to a degree but the the caricature maybe of that position is those who are building bunkers and looking for a Calling up to meet God in the air and then there's a big sigh of relief I made it I'm out of this tribulation of this terrible horrible world that I was in and And I wasn't left behind to go through any more of it.

And so that's that's kind of the mindset that we have with this popular position. But then I'm introducing this this position To other people to family members and the question is asking me. So what then is my response what happens to us?

You know if we are not to be if we're not to be looking for a Rapture, you know, it's often said it could happen. But even before this video was finished. We could be called up and That's stated over and over and over again on radio programs television programs sermons.

That's the position. We're looking for this time where there's going to be a rapture. We're caught up and then a seven-year tribulation. If that's not what we're looking for How then should we live? What is it supposed to look like?

And I think Dan really really hit the nail on the head with His analogy which which of course comes from Scripture Where Jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail against this kingdom of heaven. It will not prevail.