Daniel Chapter 7 Verses 9 – 10

• Up until this point in Chapter 7 Daniel has been amazed and captivated by the nations that he’s observed as he dreams this vision. The "four great beasts" he calls them in verse 3. He calls the fourth exceedingly strong in verse 7 but now his gaze is directed towards heaven and he’s like, "great beasts?" "Nations rising and falling?" "Booooooring!" "Who cares? Look at this!" 

• "THIS is power! THIS is exceedingly strong. Yea what I said before about the fourth beast…psyche!" Now he sees thrones put in place. Korce in the Aramaic. Used only one other time in the Bible and that was to describe the throne that Nebuchadnezzar was deposed of in Chapter 5 Verse 20 so NO! That wasn’t power. That faded, that’s gone, that didn’t last, that wasn’t real…this is royalty! 

• And as the thrones were set…a vision of eternal, unimaginable, unparalleled, uncontainable wonder…THE Ancient of Days walks out! The host of heaven freezes, all of time freezes as Daniel loses his breath and his soul fills with the image of his Creator. The One with no beginning and the One with no end. The One that is all good, nothing at all, not even a shadow of the smallest blemish…immortally, infinitely, immutably perfect and so even His garment beams white as fresh fallen snow! 

• His hair like pure wool advertising His interminable, never-ending, timeless being. His countless years, His experience, His majesty, His wisdom! And then the throne…blazing with pure and holy fire! This is our God! Draw close to the very throne of God. Reach out and touch Him…will you only warm up? NO! You will burn man! The throne IS a fiery flame! Daniel didn’t see a burning piece of perfect pine, he saw a flame throne! Blasting with power! You will be engulfed when you really reach out to God Almighty! 

• Precisely why the writer of Hebrews wrote, "Our God is an ALL consuming fire," in Hebrews 12:29. That’s how you know you’ve made a real connection with the One real God. The One that is able to save. The One that is able to relate. The One that is able to guide and provide and give you what you so long for…hope, love, security and acceptance…the One who can fulfill that need in you to "fit." This is how you know…you are ALL consumed. You don’t have to read your Bible, you GET to. You don’t have to pray, you GET to. You don’t have to come to church, you GET to. You don’t have to love your wife, you GET to. You don’t have to go to work, you GET to…you don’t have to breathe your next breath, you GET to! And gratitude floods your days while grumbling and pride are drowned it its rush! 

• Renewed and fed by fellowship and service…THAT is how you know that you know…when there is no chance of denial. Denying that you are something other than a living, breathing human being would be ridiculous because it is OBVIOUS that you are…you are all consumed because you have been to the very throne of God! Have you?

• And I love this! Notice, the throne has wheels of a chariot on its sides meaning that this throne isn’t still…it isn’t stationary but man it is on the move! Active and participating in all of the affairs of men! 

• Where else do we see this depiction by the way? Of the Ancient of Days and the throne of the Most High? You got it! Revelation Chapters 4 and 5 where we have no less than 17 references to the throne in two short chapters! Where we also see the 24 elders seated, a picture of the complete church, the complete family of God consisting of all peoples, nations and tongues and personified in the first 12 being from the Old Covenant, the 12 tribes of Israel who were given the oracles of God as Paul writes in Romans 3:2, and 12 from the New Covenant representing the 12 apostles thus making a complete picture of the history of salvation… 

• And so Daniel says he sees thrones put in place and the one that captures his attention is the one that is set ablaze…and he says that that blaze proceeds forth, a picture of the Holy Spirit and then we encounter the thousand thousands…just like we see in Revelation Chapter 5 where we get a glimpse of who this is and John tells us that they are, "many angels, the living creatures, and the elders," and they are shouting out…"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!" 

• And so Daniel could care less of the problems on earth…the throne is before him! Same with us…turn our gaze to heaven in the midst of the commotion, in the midst of the coldness of the day, the harshness and the pain of nations rising and falling in your moments…and the wheels of the fiery royal chariot will turn as the Father runs out to meet you and fills you with His all consuming presence. Daniel is captivated by glory…and they are all seated now…and the books were opened. 

• This quote/unquote "exceedingly strong" beast is about to get got. The little horn is about to be judged along with the beast, the false prophet and the Dragon himself…we know all this by comparing this scene with what we’ve already studied and learned in our verse by verse journey through Revelation. 

• What are these books? A perfect record is one. Every small and seemingly insignificant detail, or action or word ever committed in an unworthy manner…reserved to be faced so that all will know that God condemns no man…rather it is their own decision to ultimately be destroyed in the final judgment. God has committed none of these impurities…and therefore He bears none of the blame for the consequence. In fact He has done all that is necessary such that these unrighteous deeds may be blotted out by taking the blame Himself upon Calvary’s cross…but Jesus is offensive and rejected…and therefore, it’s all preserved, every forgotten detail… 

• Historians often miss significant facts deliberately or unwittingly distort the facts but not these books…that’s impossible. Every detail is complete: the place where, the time when, the manner how, the motives for, the consequences of…the books contain it all and no man can stand…except Jesus…worthy is the Lamb who was slain…in that moment YOU WANT to be hidden in Him because Daniel saw "books" and another sits open, the Lamb’s Book of Life…where He has scrupulously and gracefully and lovingly recorded each name of each person who has ever surrendered their life to Him, placing their faith and hope and trust in Him…of which the second death has no power…Revelation 20:6 tells us… 

• Yet an annoyance now arises in the background…

Daniel Chapter 7 Verses 11 – 12

• So the Anti-Christ falls, the beast falls yet the nations remain for a season and a time however with zero dominion, why? What is this time? The Millennial reign of Jesus Christ upon the earth directly after the Great Tribulation. 1,000 years of Jesus ruling as the King of the earth before it’s all done away with and a new heaven and a new earth are created…

Daniel Chapter 7 Verses 13 – 14

• I love this picture because this goes right along with what we just talked about (the Millennial reign of Christ upon the earth) because we see the Son of Man coming to the Father, two separate Persons yet the dominion He is given is the dominion His Father has, an everlasting dominion…and so we have a conundrum here…a mystery…because why? We again either see two All-Mighties or we accept by faith that surpasses understanding that indeed behold the Lord your God is One… 

• And Daniel can’t contain this…He can’t process it all, it’s too wonderful, it’s too impactful and so he groans in mortal weakness at it all…

Daniel Chapter 7 Verses 15 – 16

• Overwhelmed. No doubt he understood some as this lines up precisely with Nebuchadnezzar’s vision from Chapter 2 but these new details, this new grotesque beast, this overwhelming vision of the Ancient of Days…was too much for him to remain copacetic. Not to mention, where is Daniel at this time? Babylon. 200 years earlier Isaiah had foretold the coming of Cyrus and with that the end of the Jewish captivity…no doubt Daniel was looking forward to maybe that being it…maybe that being the end of it all and at that time the Messiah would be theocratically instituted as the Leader of the world…the everlasting kingdom…but now it was clear…there’s three more empires to go…
• So overwhelmed and troubled he needs to know the truth of all this…

Daniel Chapter 7 Verses 18 – 25

• So far this is lining up precisely to what we studied in detail through the Book of Revelation. The fourth kingdom, the revived Roman Empire will give rise to a New World Order and that New World Order will produce and empower one ruler. One ruler who will fix the world economy. One ruler who will fix the turmoil in the Middle East by somehow rebuilding the Jewish Temple and making an end to wars…One ruler who will have the power and presence of Satan within him and with him as the False Prophet and the Beast, the unholy trinity will unite during the Great Tribulation and deceive the entire world… 

• But then, at the half way point, the Abomination of Desolation. He will go into the temple and slaughter an unclean animal, a pig and sprinkle its blood upon the alter thus desecrating the temple and he will proclaim himself as god…showing all kinds of signs and wonders, calling down fire and even appearing to have died and been resurrected…this all happens at the mid-point of the Great Tribulation. 3.5 years of peace after he comes into power, 3.5 years of hell on earth as described in Revelation Chapters 6 – 19…for a time, times and half a time…

Daniel Chapter 7 Verses 26 – 28

• In the end, Jesus wins. All these things must come to pass to put an end to evil and sin and death and pain but Revelation 19, after the 7 year Great Tribulation, Jesus saves the day…again. Notice one thing before we close. A pattern we see in Daniel Chapter 7. Something that encourages me…because this seems bleak, sometimes my circumstance seems bleak, my trial too tough…this encourages me as I by faith…trust in Jesus. Notice…

• Verse 9…"Ancient of Days." Verse 13…"Ancient of Days." Verse 22…"Ancient of Days." Why 3 times? Because the Bible is a pattern of hope and love and truth waiting to be found out…because the Ancient of Days is indeed One yet Three Persons…the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit…Revelation Chapter 4 verse 8 the Four Living Creatures cried out at the throne of God, "Holy, holy, holy…Lord God Almighty…Who was, and is…and is to come." Three patterns of three…why? So that we may not fear…Jesus is indeed God. He has indeed overcome and at your surrender to Him, He will indeed dwell in you and be with you…neither leave you nor forsake you and whether it’s today, tomorrow or even as Daniel sits in captivity with the rest of his people in Babylon…trust arises, hope arrives, He will see you through all the way to victory if you choose to be His. 

• End by reading Revelation 21 Verses 1 – 8.