Sunday, November 14. 2021 AM (pt. 2)

Five over five hundred miles to the Mediterranean Sea, which is what the Great Sea is. Why should he be concerned about a body of water 500 miles to his west? Now, he certainly prayed every day, three times a day, toward the west, toward Jerusalem, and he oriented his body and his eyes in that general direction, but the Great Sea proved central to the visions for two reasons.

First of all, the coming empires that are put on display here in the vision, these coming empires which succeeded Babylon, had much of their fortunes decided by their forays through and around the Great Sea, the Mediterranean Sea.

Secondly, the sea, the image of the sea, is used throughout the Old and New Testaments as an image of the nations. I'll give you an example in Isaiah chapter 17 in verses 12 through 13. Just one of many examples.

Woe to the multitude of many peoples who make a noise like a roar of the seas, and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters, but God will rebuke them and they will flee far away and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

Now it's interesting, isn't it, that we come to this vision and there's a bunch of wind, and to remind ourselves that time and again in the Old Testament and even in the New, that the nations, the Gentiles, were described by waters, by rushing waters, by the sea, and we see that God is stirring them up with his wind.

So, this image of the sea is in Daniel's vision because Daniel's about to have a vision. The vision is going to continue on by showing him four nations. Four nations. So it makes sense that he's thinking about the sea, and then he begins to see the beasts representing various nations.

That is an agreement. Sea is a bunch of nations. Now let's look at each nation in a row. And four winds of heaven are blowing upon this great sea. And you think about the four winds from heaven, north and south and east and west, wind coming from every direction, brings to mind that which pertains to the entire map.

All over the map. Things are going to be happening all over the map. If they all blow at once, it means there's a hurricane or a storm or something. And if you have a great sea and you have a great wind, then you end up with a great storm.

Just ask Jonah. Now how are we to think about these winds of heaven? The four winds, they come from and head off to and do so according to patterns that only God knows. I mean, do you know where the wind comes from and where it goes?

Can you capture the wind and control it according to your desires? That is entirely the domain of the Lord. The four winds reminds us that there are things beyond our perception and beyond our understanding, beyond the horizon and out of sight.

And we hear the sound of them but have no control over them. Events and decisions bring matters into our spheres, and we experience things that we don't know where they came from, and we have no idea where it's all going.

Do you relate to me? Do you relate to Daniel? We live in what is called the information age. The information age. Where supposedly we have pretty much instant access to any information that our hearts could ever desire.

But have you noticed something? What we don't know, what we can't see, and what we are not allowed to be shown dominates all the news. What we don't know, what we can't see, and what we are not allowed to be shown dominates all the conversations.

And yet we live in the information age. I'll give you three examples. COVID, China, corruption. Why are these the talk of the town? Because of what we don't know, what we can't see, and what we won't be shown.

That's why these things are of such critical interest to us all. Now Daniel's in the same situation. There are some things that he would really like to know about. There are some critical issues. But there are things happening beyond his sphere of understanding and his perception.

But Daniel, notice, is still helped by the vision. He is steadied in this vision by the recognition that these four winds are from heaven. The four winds are from heaven. And if you will do a survey of your own Bible, you will discover, to your satisfaction, that God is the one who controls the four winds.

Just look up four winds. And look through and see how God is the one who is in charge of the four winds. And he's the one who makes the four winds blow where he wants it and how he wants it. So we see that God is sovereign over the nations.

And he is sovereign over their entire parade as one nation displaces the other. Now it is admittedly easy, is it not, to forget about the sovereignty of God in the face of a mighty storm. I mean, when the four winds whip up the great sea, our minds and our hearts echo with equal amounts of turmoil.

Daniel himself was not immune to such misplaced fear and anxiety. Consider his response in verse 15 as he sees this vision. How does he respond? He sees a great storm. How does he respond? Verse 15. I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit, within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.

Sounds like us after we spend 30 minutes surveying news updates on the internet. Like, oh my. Look at the size of that storm. Don't worry, there's another one next week. Given his sorrows of oppression and the instability of the current state, it's understandable that Daniel's mood was not immediately improved by the vision.

More turmoil? More chaos?

What, God, you're saying the storm is just getting started? How is that supposed to be comforting? Brothers and sisters, we have a great need in our lives for the strengthening of our faith. When we see the nations being stirred up by the four winds of heaven, we need to remember who we're riding with.

Christ is the Master, and the winds and the seas obey Him. And the very waters that we would fear are the very waters we have been called to fish. To make the disciples of the nations. To make disciples of the nations which are so often in a squall.

But we're riding with Christ. Now a list of the accused. Verses 3 through 8. We begin with verse 3. These beasts in the parade. Verse 3, and four great beasts came up from the sea. Right? Nations coming out of the nations.

That makes sense. Four great beasts come out from the sea, each different from the other. Have you noticed how biblical political cartoons are? Wherein political entities are represented by beasts, animals.

That tradition goes back a long way. In fact, I've seen political cartoons from the World War I era, and every nation involved in that mess was represented by a different animal. It's really interesting.

Go back and do a little survey of political cartoons, and as people try to capture the times and tensions of various events in history, very often nations are depicted as animals. Where did that tradition come from?

Well, it comes from the Bible. The Bible often describes states, city-states, nations, as different types of beasts. Different types of beasts. Different types of animals. And we have four given here.

And they are being stirred up by the winds of heaven. Just like in chapter 2, when Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's vision, and there are four sections to the statue, we have four beasts, one right after another.

These four empires are being dealt with because they are the four most connected to the condition of the Jews, their land, and their hope of the coming Messiah. So, the people of God are being encouraged.

From this time forth, going forward, God's promises are going to be fulfilled. And here are some things for you to keep in mind as God does His work in the world in the coming generations. So, the first three empires listed are Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece.

The first two, Babylon and the Medes and the Persians, those two empires expanded their territory all the way, and even a little bit around, the Great Sea, the Mediterranean. Greece, or the Macedonians, they were familiar and very proficient in the sea, and they built their empire around the Mediterranean part of it, and then eastward into the Fertile Crescent, into the backwaters of Babylon and Persia.

The fourth kingdom, Rome, rings the entire Mediterranean with its fortresses, and its ports, and its trade, and its navy. In fact, the Romans called the Mediterranean Mare Nostrum, Our Sea. And special focus is given to the fourth kingdom, because that's the time in which the Messiah comes and establishes His kingdom.

Babylon as a Beast Made Human

So, we begin with Babylon, verse 4. The first was like a lion. The first beast was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off. And it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man.

And a man's heart was given to it. Well, a lion is a vicious beast. It kills for dominance as well as for food. And lions are a king among the beasts, so also dominant is the eagle. This chimeric beast, however, is altered.

It is suddenly changed into the likeness of a man instead of a beast, and he has a man's heart. What does this represent? But Nebuchadnezzar, do you remember Nebuchadnezzar? He was acting awfully beastly.

Until God got a hold of him and humbled him and cut him down to size. He soared in his mind to the heights of the eagles, but he was cast down like a fallen tree in a field where he rotted for seven years.

And then God stood him up and gave him a new heart, a living heart, the kind of heart that the image of God should have. And Nebuchadnezzar was converted. This is the best case scenario for a state, by the way, that it would be freed from its beastliness and would function in its human capacity as an image of God ought to function, bringing glory to God.

Medo-Persia and the Restraining of Devouring Power

The next empire is that of Medo-Persia. The Medes and the Persians had a coalition to bring about a world empire. Now Daniel has this vision when? During Belshazzar's brief reign, the first year of Belshazzar's reign.

And Belshazzar's reign and the empire of Babylon came to a surprising and abrupt end. We studied that in chapter 5. That is foreshadowed by the manner in which the next beast arrives in this parade. Verse 5, and suddenly another beast.

Because it was a very sudden transition between Babylon and Medo-Persia being world empires. And suddenly another beast, a second like a bear. It was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth.

And they said thus to it, arise, devour much flesh. So Medo-Persia later on will be depicted as a ram with one horn way bigger than the other. That's also here in the bear. One side all hunched up and bigger than the other side.

That was because the Persians dominated the Medo-Persian alliance. And although this empire said devour much flesh, and boy did Persia ever do that. There is something restraining its eating habits. There's three ribs stuck in its mouth.

And you may imagine if you have three ribs stuck in your mouth, it's kind of hard to eat. It's a kind of restraining thing going on here. A hampering, curtailing effect upon it. And wouldn't you remember that the Jews were in danger of being devoured and destroyed by the Persian Empire?

But what three kings stood in the way of Jews dying? Darius, Cyrus, and Ahasuerus, also known as Xerxes. And the Bible gives testimony to that. After the bear came a leopard in Daniel 7 verse 6. We see this one as Greece.

Greece, Alexander the Great, and the Four Heads of Empire

After this I looked and there was another like a leopard which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it. Alexander the Great took the reign to the Greek war machine when he was only 18 years of age.

By the time he was 32, he had raced his armies all over the known world. Eradicating the Persian Empire and spreading Greek language and culture from the Aegean Peninsula to the Indian Peninsula. From modern-day Egypt to modern-day Kazakhstan.

He was very swift. Very swift. On at least one occasion, his army marched 36 miles per day. And over the course of his campaign, it averaged 19 and a half miles a day. That's fast, especially when put into ancient terms.

Alexander personally led his troops through an area of 360 ,000 square miles large. Moving back and forth every direction as was needed. And when you think of the agility of a leopard and having four wings, you may imagine a creature that can get around really fast whichever way it needs to go.

What about the four heads? Alexander died when he was only 32 and his empire was immediately carved out by four competing generals. And their internecine conflict often raged across the territory of Judah and impacted Jerusalem.

Through many intrigues, this Macedonian dominion was replaced with Rome. Verse 7. After this I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth.

It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns. So Rome is not associated with any particular beast that we have ever seen.

But we have similar images here as we do in chapter 2. The fourth section of the statue and the fourth beast share similarities. We see iron feet and hear trampling and grinding and it's more frightening than the other beasts.

Now we've been told in verse 3 that all the beasts in the parade are different from one another. And this is repeated here but it could also be read this way. Not just that it was different from the beasts that were before it but it was diverse according to all the beasts that were before it.

Which is a possible rendering. Rome was a great synthesizer, adopting anything and everything that would promote its dominion and its purposes. Rome was also very intensive. Rome did not rule from a distance and just kind of a big picture kind of rule.

But Rome got very involved into all the small details and enforcing its laws in the smaller places. So we see Rome. We also read that Rome had ten horns. Now we are given focus of about one man in sort of the lion.

The lion had its wings stripped and then it was made to stand up like a man. And we remember in Epic of Nebuchadnezzar of biblical fame. We think about Medo-Persia and there's the three ribs in the mouth.

And we think of the three kings that kept Medo-Persia from devouring the Jews entirely. We think of the leopard in the empire of Greece and the four heads of the leopard which represented the four generals that carved up Alexander's empire.

And then we come to another number and focus ten horns. Now Rome had many more leaders than ten. But as with the other numbers, so also here, these kings matter because they pertain directly to the vital places, people and events of redemptive history.

According to the ancient historians themselves, the first ten emperors of Rome were Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian. Those are the first ten Roman emperors.

Why do they matter? They only matter because they are connected to Christ in some fashion. What we have is that under the reign of Augustus, Jesus began the new covenant by his death and resurrection under Tiberius.

Jesus was born under Augustus. He begins the new covenant by his death and resurrection during the reign of Tiberius. The church spread by the power of the Holy Spirit during the reigns of Caligula and Claudius.

And suffered persecution from Rome under the reign of Nero. The next three, Galba, Otho and Vitellius passed within a single year. And then Vespasian, during the reign of Vespasian, Christ came in judgment against Jerusalem in AD 70 and the old covenant passed away.

The Little Horn, Nero, and the Fragility of Earthly Kingdoms

So you can see how these ten horns matter. And then there is a horn among them that is of another kind. Daniel 7 verse 8. I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots.

And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words. So think about what's going on here. Thankfully, this vision lies right alongside the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had in chapter 2.

We can trace the history of the four kingdoms by the metals, the precious metals listed, and then by the beasts that are listed. And so we see that in the earlier vision, there was a stone hewn from the mountain, uncut by human hands, that crashed into the statue of these empires.

And this stone figures the Messiah. But the Messiah did not come during the days of Babylon, the head, or the days of Medo-Persia, the silver chest and arms. He did not come during the days of Greece, the bronze thighs.

But the Messiah came during the days of Rome. He was born during the days of Rome. Read the Christmas story. We're going to be reading the Christmas story this year, are we not? And we're going to be reading about how the Messiah was born during the reign of Caesar Augustus.

And in fact, Daniel 2 .44 says this,. And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

The stone crashed into the feet of the statue, crushed the kingdoms, and then over time grew to become a mountain which filled the entirety of the earth. So if we're taking the plainest reading of the text, I think that it's clear that this horn, being on the head of the beast who we have identified as Rome, is one of the kings of this fourth empire, but it's of a different kind.

Somehow it's another. And I think that Nero makes an excellent candidate to be this horn, not only due to his blasphemous and profane attacks upon the church, upon the saints of the kingdom, but because although he was one of the emperors, he was another kind of them.

He wasn't exactly the same as them. Why was that? Nero was the first emperor of Rome to rise to the throne outside of the line of succession. Nero was the first emperor of Rome to rise to the throne outside of the line of succession.

And how was that achieved? Well, the three previous emperors, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, were assassinated, and you know how assassinations have a damping effect on the lines of succession. These three horns being pulled up by the root made way for Nero, a little horn, a little upstart who had no legitimate claim to the empire.

Now, there's much spirited debate amongst Christian brethren about who this horn was or who he may be, but I think it's clear to all the saints that God judges and destroys him as an enemy of the saints.

And that's what we all agree on. Now, when we read this parade of beasts in Daniel, it should be clear to all of us that these beasts and their various bones and heads are fragile. They're fragile. They keep breaking.

They keep getting replaced one by the other. One empire succeeds the next. One horn succeeds the next. These empires and emperors do not last. They are manifest failures. They are political cartoons sketched on page six of the Redemption Times.

They had their day. They did their thing. They were big and important and powerful to be reckoned with, but all their plotting was a vain thing, an absurd joke that set the Lord of the heavens to laughing.

They thought they had invented a great scheme, but it turns out God had already planned the end from the beginning and revealed through his prophets, by his Spirit, the things that were yet to come to pass.

This is incredibly encouraging to the saints. Now, perhaps you have sat with a young child freshly wakened by a nightmare, and they're explaining to you the horrible things that they saw, and you counsel with them.

If you're able to help them see that the stressful images that they are afraid of are simply matters that they have encountered throughout their day, and it just got all mixed up in their mind, and they had themselves, you know, shoes and keys in a dryer.

When you pull it out for them to see, oh, it wasn't a monster, it's just shoes and keys in a dryer, or it's just stresses that I've had in my day. And when you pull it out into the light, you identify it and define it, oh, well, it's not that big of a deal, is it?

Do you notice how, looking at these horrific beasts all parading past in Daniel's vision, when they are identified for what they really are, there's no reason to fear them. It is, of course, harder to live in boldness and courage before the face of the beasts that still live today, to have courage and boldness for Christ in the face of ravenous, tyrannical states today, which are replete with their own little horns, mouthing off against God and His Christ.

We have a temptation to waver, but we have nothing to fear. Remember that in Genesis, in Genesis chapter 2, God made Adam, and then He describes Adam's job. He is to exercise dominion. He then puts on parade in front of Adam all of the beasts.

Adam names them, defines them, determines them, because he's exercising dominion over the beasts, which is why in prophetic literature in the Bible, the states, the various nations and kings are represented by beasts.

Because the second Adam has been given everlasting dominion. King of kings, Lord of lords, capital K, king over lowercase k, kings, capital L, lord over lowercase l, lords. And guess what? As the beasts come in parade before Him, He names them, defines them, and determines them.

That's just Greece. That's Rome. Yeah, they go doing their Roman thing. That's just the Turks and the Moors. That's just France and Britain. That's just Germany and Russia. That's just the United States and China.

Just a bunch of fragile beasts in a parade before the Son of Man. So what do we have to fear? Especially if we're the bride of Christ, if we're His help mate, we are to submit to His headship and proclaim through the gospel His dominion over all the nations.

No reason to fear, no reason to cower, because Christ is King. Let's close in prayer. Father, I thank you for the time we've had together this morning, and a reminder from your word to Daniel how you have everything in hand.

It's according to your plan. We can trust you. And your plan is good, and your plan is centered around the good news of Jesus Christ. And it's a plan that entails all the nations. As you show your grace and your goodness, and spread your word to all the peoples of the earth.

So Father, I pray that you would help us as little children, that we would trust you, trust your word on the matters, take your word for what the beasts are, and not be afraid of the nightmares, but rejoice in Christ's dominion and His rule and His reign.

Give us courage and zeal, and may this courage and zeal be expressed by massive amounts of thanksgiving, especially in this season. That we would sound forth the note that we are not frightened, and we are not bowed before man, but we serve the Lord.

And I pray that you would help us to make that sound very clear through our thanksgiving. We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Benediction and Dismissal

Would you stand with me for our song of benediction? We're going to sing again page 100-D from our Psalms for Worship hymnal. We'll sing, Make a Joyful Noise to Jesus the King.

The love of the Father, and the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. And come back tonight. We're dismissed.