Explaining Daniel's Prophecies (Part 1) - Chapters 2, 7, and 8

what do those visions in the book of daniel actually mean so there are several visions in the prophecies of daniel that sound quite honestly really bizarre and can be very difficult to understand three of them that seem especially strange are found in chapters 2 7 and 8. in chapter 2 nebuchadnezzar has a vision of a giant statue made out of five different metals that is destroyed by a rock that turns into a mountain in chapter 7 daniel sees a lion with wings that stands up like a man a bear with ribs in his mouth a leopard with four wings and four heads and another dreadful beast with ten horns oh and by the way one of his horns can talk and persecute saints then in chapter eight daniel sees a great ram who is killed by a goat with one big horn the bighorn is broken and four horns take its place and then out of one of those four horns another horn grows and this horn magnifies himself and takes away the daily sacrifice out of the temple see i warned you it sounds a bit wacky that's why in this video i'm going to ask the questions what do we know for sure and what else can we safely guess to be true about what is meant by these visions the things we know to be true are going to be the things that we find obviously stated in the text of daniel and the things that we can guess are going to be reasonable inferences that we can make as we piece together the things that we know all right here goes first let's see what we know for certain about each of these visions this part is actually pretty easy because in each of these visions daniel writes that he also didn't know how they were to be interpreted so god supernaturally revealed to him at least some of the interpretation of every one of these visions we'll start with daniel 2 in this instance nebuchadnezzar was disturbed by a dream and none of the wise men of babylon could tell him the interpretation of it nebuchadnezzar actually refused to tell the wise men what the dream even was he told them to first divine the dream itself and then tell him what it meant after that of course none of the wise men could do this but daniel prayed and god revealed to him the dream itself and also the interpretation in the dream nebuchadnezzar saw a great statue made out of five different materials the head of the image was made of gold the chest and arms of the image were made of silver the belly and thighs of the image were made of brass the legs were made of iron and the feet were made of a mixture of iron and clay this image was then destroyed by a stone that was cut without human hands and struck the image at its feet and after that the stone turned into a great mountain this is what we know about the dream itself now let's examine the interpretation that daniel was given the passage tells us that the different parts of the image were representative of different kingdoms on the earth the head of gold daniel said represented nebuchadnezzar himself and his kingdom of babylon the gold seems to be representative according to the text of specifically his kingdom power strength and glory then the chest and arms of silver the belly and thighs of brass and the legs of iron represent a second a third and a fourth kingdom each rising to power one after the other after the fall of babylon then we are told that the feet and specifically the toes of the feet being made of iron and clay will be a sort of extension of that fourth kingdom represented by the iron legs this iron and clay kingdom will have some of the strength of the iron kingdom but will be weak in the same way that clay does not mix with iron so we can assume that this final kingdom represented by the feet will be a loose alliance existing at the end of the final kingdom that will not hold together very well finally we're told that the stone that came and destroyed the image is the lord god will send the messiah to set up his kingdom on the earth and the stone will strike the image at its feet during the time of these kings so what can we infer from this well we know that babylon was conquered by the medo-persian empire the medo-persian empire was conquered by the greek empire and the greek empire was eventually conquered by the roman empire so daniel 2 interprets this vision telling us that these medals speak of different kingdoms and we can see in history which kingdoms they seem to represent all the way from babylon until the roman empire but it is uncertain whether or not there was ever a time in the roman empire that resembled the description of those feet of the image verse 41 says that the feet have in them the strength of the iron meaning that this kingdom has the strength of the iron kingdom the roman empire but is mixed with a weak alliance of others so that it appears to be a very short lived kingdom but this is the kingdom that is to be on the earth when jesus returns the text says in the days of these kings presumably meaning in the days of the rulers of this final iron and clay kingdom god will set up his eternal kingdom now before you get too confused with all of this let's consider the other two visions because they will actually give us further details on what we have learned from chapter two in chapter 7 instead of seeing a statue made of different metals daniel sees four different kinds of beasts who emerge from the sea when he is given the interpretation of this he is told that each of these beasts represent a kingdom in much the same way that each of the medals in chapter 2 also represented kingdoms the first beast that daniel sees in chapter 7 looks like a lion he has eagle's wings but his wings are taken away and he stands like a man and is given the heart of a man now earlier in the book of daniel in chapter 4 king nebuchadnezzar of babylon was lifted up with pride so god brought him low made him like a beast his hair grew like eagle's feathers and in verse 16 an angel said let his heart be changed from man's and let a beast's heart be given unto him and let seven times pass over him after this nebuchadnezzar humbled himself and his man's heart was restored to him again so the parallels between this story and the kingdom of the lion with eagle's wings who is given the heart of a man is strikingly obvious are we safe then to guess that the lion and daniel's vision in chapter 7 is the same as the head of gold in the vision in chapter 2 could the lion represent the babylonian empire well we know historically that the kingdom of babylon was very much associated with the symbol of a lion it was kind of like the mascot of the kingdom on the walls of babylon and all throughout the city were carvings and statues of lions babylon was known as the kingdom of the lion so yes we are safe to assume that this first kingdom is the kingdom of babylon just as the first medal in chapter 2 was also the babylonian empire and at the end of the vision in chapter 7 we are told again that the kingdom of god is established on the earth so both the second chapter and seventh chapter of daniel show us a list of kingdoms that lead from the babylonian empire until the kingdom of christ this means that we can check our interpretation and assumptions about the first visions of kingdoms from chapter 2 to see if it matches with this second vision in chapter 7 since they are clearly both speaking about the same kingdoms that lead up until the coming of christ so we have verified that the head of gold which was said to be babylon is the same as the lion with wings in chapter 7 which is very obviously babylon now what about the chest and arms of silver that we assumed referred to the medo-persian empire does this assumption match the second beast in daniel 7. well daniel said that the second beast was a bear that was raised up on one side and it had three ribs in its mouth devouring much flesh well this matches perfectly with the medo-persian empire in fact it was an empire of the medes and persians but when cyrus the persian rose to power in the empire he conquered the medes and led the persians to control the empire it was the medo-persian empire but it was really led by the persians and today most history books just refer to it as the persian empire because after cyrus the great the empire really was one-sided kind of like this bear raised up on one side furthermore the medo-persian empire conquered three great powers to become the world empire that it was the kingdom of babylon the kingdom of egypt and the kingdom of lydia this explains why daniel saw in the vision that this bear was devouring much flesh and had three ribs in its mouth the ribs likely represent the three kingdoms that the medo-persian empire conquered then the next empire historically speaking was the greek empire the kingdom that conquered the persians the nation i suggested was represented by the belly and thighs of brass in the vision of the statue in daniel 2. the greek empire was established by alexander the great who conquered the persian empire with lightning speed in only three years to give some context to that king nebuchadnezzar of babylon spent 12 years beseeching one city tyre but alexander the great conquered tyre and the entire persian empire in one quarter of that time this would explain why the third beast that daniel saw in chapter 7 was a leopard an extremely fast animal but why did that leopard have four wings and four heads well the number four is a perfect picture of the greek empire because after alexander the great conquered the persians he died rather suddenly and on his deathbed he said he wanted to leave his kingdom to the strong so the greek empire ended up being divided into four parts controlled by different generals the lion with wings the bear raised on its side and the leopard with four wings and four heads all match perfectly with babylon persia and greece exactly as we guessed was the case about the gold the silver and the brass from the image in chapter two and these conclusions are reinforced by the vision of daniel chapter 8. in this vision there is a goat with one horn who attacks a ram with two horns and it is said of the ram that one of his horns is greater than the other and it is also said that the great horn of the goat is broken and replaced by four horns when daniel wonders about this vision he is again told the interpretation this time by the angel gabriel who appeared to daniel to tell him what it means he said that the ram with one horn larger than the others represented the kings of media and persia and the goat gabriel said represented the first king of greece who would be replaced by four kings this gives us 100 confidence that the bear in chapter 7 is also the medo-persian empire because just like the ram had one horn larger than the other so the bear was raised up on one side and the leopard with four wings in chapter seven is surely the greek empire because the goat with four horns was said to be the greek empire in chapter eight this leads us to reasonably conclude that we are also correct about the final kingdom the kingdom of iron that we said must represent the roman empire we know from history that this was the empire that conquered the greeks and in chapter 2 the roman empire was the iron legs that became feet of iron and clay but in chapter 7 it is represented by a dreadful and terrible and exceedingly strong beast with great iron teeth that devoured and break in pieces and stamp the residue with its feet this seems a very apt description of the roman empire which truly did devour kingdoms of the world and stamped them in pieces but then we find from daniel 7 that on this beast are ten horns three of which are plucked up to make way for another horn that takes their place and daniel beheld this horn until all thrones were cast down and the ancient of days the lord came to set up his kingdom daniel was told that these ten horns represented ten kings and that three of those kings would be conquered by one new king who would apparently lead the other seven this new king would make war against the saints for a time times and half of a time and this period of one time plus two times plus a half or three and a half times would end with the coming of the ancient of days the lord god to set up his kingdom on the earth so then what we find is that there is a period of the roman empire when it is to be controlled by a loose alliance of ten kings three of those rulers will be conquered by one new ruler who will then persecute and kill saints for three and a half times this probably refers to three and a half years as we will discuss in future videos and these kings will be ruling on the earth when the messiah comes to destroy them and set up the kingdom of god this fits very well with the mention of the toes of iron and clay from daniel chapter 2. the ten toes must represent the ten kings mentioned in daniel 7. and daniel 2 tells us that it is in the time of these kings that the messiah will come to set up the kingdom of god on the earth so though the rest of these two visions are perfectly fulfilled already in the babylonian empire the persian empire the greek empire and the roman empire it seems that the end of both of these prophecies have not yet been fulfilled the roman empire never was ruled by ten kings and therefore there was never a new king who rose to power by conquering three of the other ten this last part this loose iron and clay alliance of ten kings with some strength of the old roman empire is still unfulfilled and must be in the future now there is more to the vision in chapter 8 that deals with an abomination of desolation in the temple but i'm going to try to explain that in my next video dealing with daniel chapters 8 9 11 and 12. for now let's recap what we know and what we've reasonably assumed from the empires described in chapters 2 7 and 8. in chapter 2 we learned that the head of gold represents the kingdom of babylon which will be followed by three more world empires before the messiah jesus will return and set up his kingdom the kingdom of god will be set up during a time when the last of these empires is short-lived and divided as represented by iron and clay in chapter 8 we learned that the next two kingdoms after babylon would be the medo-persian empire which will be conquered by the greek empire so then we understand that the silver chest and arms in chapter 2 and the bear in chapter 7 both represent medo-persia and the brass legs and thighs in chapter 2 along with the leopard with four wings in chapter 7 represent the greek empire in chapter 2 we learn that the final empire after these three will be strong for a long time but will consist of a weak alliance at the end when the kingdom of god is set up and from chapter 7 we learn that this will be an alliance of ten kings which will be ruled by one other king who comes to power by conquering three of the original ten this king will make war with the saints for a period of three and a half times probably years until the kingdom of god comes and he is destroyed what do you think i know there's a lot more to be said here but i think i've detailed everything that we can know for sure about what daniel's visions actually mean or at least what we know for sure from what we've studied so far these visions tell us what they mean in a matter of fact way so much so that really the only assumptions we've made in this conclusion is that the final empire is the roman empire however that's really not much of an assumption given all the facts and i think this will be proved very clearly when we examine daniel chapter 9. now you might be asking how could it be that jesus is going to return and set up his kingdom during the roman empire if the roman empire is already gone that's an interesting question that i'll get to in more detail in a later video but in revelation chapter 17 we are told about a beast that was is not and will be this beast seems to represent the roman empire as well and this would mean that the roman empire was supposed to be in existence go out of existence for a while and then come back into existence at the end of time during the time right before jesus returns anyway we'll get to revelation 17 further on down the line and i'll get to daniel chapters 9 through 12 and the rest of chapter 8 in my next video for now i hope this clears up some of the questions you've had about these admittedly wacky visions check back in a week or two for the next video and don't forget to let me know what you're thinking in the comments below [Music] now before i go i want to sincerely thank you for watching this video if you like this content don't forget to hit subscribe to support the channel and to see more content like this and follow the bible explained on facebook at facebook.com forward slash the bible explained i really appreciate the support also i want to remind you that the entire bible is ultimately about one thing the redemption of mankind by jesus christ you see the bible tells us that all men are sinners and that we must pay for our sin against god for eternity in hell that's definitely the bad news but you see the bible is all about this one thing the good news that christ died to pay the penalty for our sin on the cross since your sin has been paid for by christ all that is left for you to do is to turn from your sin and accept his salvation by faith if you've never accepted this gift of god by faith won't you do that today leave a comment or send me a private message on facebook and i'll be happy to talk to you more about having your sins forgiven by jesus christ [Music]

Channel: The Bible Explained

Views: 272,105

Keywords: Bible, Scripture, Jesus, Christ, God, Christian, Faith, Explained, Teach, Daniel, Prophecy, Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Daniel 8, Beast, Lion, Bear, Leopard, Goat, Ram, Image, Statue, Nebuchadnezzar, Antichrist, End Times, Eschatology, Tribulation, Rome, Roman Empire, Babylon, Greece, Greek Empire, Medo-Persian, Persian, Empire, Persia

Id: qtjyv-tNvYo

Length: 22min 27sec (1347 seconds)

Published: Wed May 11 2022