Daniel 07: The Ancient of Days

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible
Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon.
Today, daniel, chapter 7, andtoday's title is the Ancient of
Days the Ancient of Days.
We're going to be transitioningfrom the stories of Daniel into
the prophecies of Daniel, andit's going to be awesome, it's
going to be great and there'ssome great learning moments in

(00:22):
these I can't wait to share withyou.
So, if you have your Bibles, Iwant wanna open up with me to
Daniel, chapter seven.
While you're doing that, asalways, you wanna take just a
moment to like, share andsubscribe to the YouTube channel
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The more we dig, the more wefind, and they're doing just an

(00:43):
absolutely wonderful job overthere.
But, once again, if you haveyour Bibles, I want to open up
with me to Daniel, chapter 7.
Don't forget, the overall ideahere is that God is in control,
and Daniel is writing this to agroup of people that are
scattered all over the knownworld at the time, and if
there's anything they'reprobably struggling with is is
God in control.

(01:04):
Is God going to bring us backto his land in 70 years and how
is that going to look Like?
What is that going to look like?
How is he going to do this?
There's all these 99 questions,and Daniel is writing to these
exiled people and he's saying no, no, god's still in control.
Let me tell you some storiesabout what God has been up to

(01:27):
over the past several years, andhe's just showing them how God
has not lost a single step andhe's going to bring us back.
He's going to honor his wordand then, as we transition over
to Daniel 7, he's going to saynot only is God in control of
now, but God's in control of thefuture as well.
And so we're going to read thisand when you read it, we're
switching to a different kind ofliterature.

(01:49):
So the first six chapters willbe called historical narrative
it is history being told andthis next one is called
apocalyptic literature.
In other words, remember inEzekiel when he's using and
Jeremiah and Isaiah and allthese others, where they'll use
metaphors and different thingsto try to wrap around hard to
describe things.
You know, it's like a parable.

(02:09):
A parable is a principlewrapped in a story to help us
understand it better.
Well, the metaphor, when itcomes to apocalyptic literature,
is a hard to understand conceptthat will be wrapped around
symbols and stuff like that tohelp us get our minds around it
right.
So that's what apocalypticliterature is, and so it's going
to switch over to that.
It's very interesting and if youever read the book of
Revelation, you're going to seea lot of what you hear in the

(02:32):
book of Revelation firstmentioned here.
So, if you're ready, daniel,chapter 7, verse 1, says this
Earlier which pause, rememberthe stuff we just got through
reading was in the latter partof Daniel's life.
But as Daniel's writing this,he's saying earlier than that.
So years earlier, in the firstyear of King Belshazzar's reign

(02:52):
in Babylon, that was the guy whohad the freaky fingers right.
So it was that guy.
So way back then.
So we're shifting back andforth in time here.
Earlier, during the first yearof King Belshazzar's reign in
Babylon, daniel had a dream andhe saw visions as he lay in his
bed.
He wrote down the dream andthis is what he saw In my vision

(03:13):
that night I, daniel, saw agreat storm churning the surface
of a great sea.
A strong wind was blowing fromevery direction.
Then four huge beasts jumped upout of the water, each
different from the others.
The first beast was like a lionwith eagle's wings.
I watched its wings.

(03:33):
Its wings were pulled off andit was left standing with two
hind feet on the ground like ahuman being.
It was given a human mind.
I saw the second beast.
It was like a bear.
It was rearing up on one sideand it had three ribs in its
mouth, between its teeth, and Iheard a voice saying to it Get
up, devour the flesh of manypeople.

(03:55):
When the third of these strangebeasts appeared, it looked like
a leopard and it had fourbird's wings on its back and it
had four heads.
Great authority was given tothis beast.
Then, in my vision that night, Isaw a fourth beast terrifying,
dreadful and very strong.
It devoured and crushed itsvictims with huge iron teeth and

(04:19):
trampled their remains beneathits feet.
It was different from any ofthe other beasts and it had ten
horns.
As I was looking at the horns,suddenly another small horn
appeared among them.
Three of the first horns weretorn out by the roots to make
room for it.
The little horn had eyes likehuman eyes and a mouth that was

(04:41):
boasting arrogantly.
I watched these thrones.
I watched as thrones were putin place and the ancient one sat
down to judge.
I love that.
The ancient one sat down tojudge.
His clothing was white as snow.
His hair was purest wool.
Remember Revelation, chapterone?
He sat on a fiery throne withwheels blazing of fire.

(05:04):
A river of fire was pouring outand flowing from his presence.
That's also in Ezekiel 48.
Millions of angels ministeredto him and many millions stood
to attend him.
Then the court began itssession and the books were
opened.
It's also in the book ofRevelation.
I'm going to stop saying that.
I continued to watch because Icould hear a little horn

(05:26):
boastful in its speech.
I kept watching until thefourth beast was killed and his
body was destroyed by fire.
The other three beasts hadtheir authority taken from them,
but they were allowed to live awhile longer.
My vision continued that nightand I saw someone like the Son
of man coming with the clouds ofheaven and he approached the

(05:46):
ancient one and he was led intohis presence.
He was given authority andhonor and sovereignty over all
the nations of the world so thatpeople of every race and nation
and language would obey him.
His rule is eternal, it willnever end and his kingdom will
never be destroyed.
I, daniel, was troubled by all Ihad seen, and my visions

(06:08):
terrified me, so I approachedone of these standing beside the
throne and asked him what itall meant, and he explained it
to me like this the four hugebeasts represent four kingdoms
that will arise from the earth,but in the end the holy people
of the Most High will be giventhe kingdom and they will rule
forever and ever.
Then I wanted to know the truemeaning of the fourth beast, the

(06:31):
one who is different from theothers and so terrifying.
It had devoured and crushed itsvictims with iron teeth and
bronze claws, trampling theirremains beneath his feet.
I also asked about the tenhorns and the fourth beast's
head and the little horn thatcame up after the three of the
other ones.
The horn had seemed greaterthan the others and it had human

(06:52):
eyes and a mouth that wasboasting arrogantly.
As I watched, this horn waswaging war against God's holy
people and was defeating them.
This horn was waging waragainst God's holy people and
was defeating them Until theHoly One, the Most High, came to
judge in favor of his holypeople.
Then the time arrived for theholy people to take over the
kingdom.
Then he said to me the fourthbeast and the fourth world power

(07:14):
that will rule the earth.
It will be different from allthe others.
It will devour the whole world,trampling and crushing
everything in its path that's abig one and oppress the holy

(07:36):
people of the Most High.
He will try to change theirsacred festivals and laws and
they'll be placed under hiscontrol for times, time and half
a time.
That's a big one.
We'll come back to that in aminute.
But the court will passjudgment and all his people will
be taken away and completelydestroyed.
Then the sovereign power andthe greatness of all kingdoms
under heaven will be given tothe holy people of the Most High

(07:59):
.
His kingdom will last forever,and all that was the end of the
vision.
And I, daniel, was terrified bythoughts and my face was pale
with fear, but I kept thesethings to myself.
Wow, that's a lot of stuff.
Now, listen, only Daniel couldhave a dream like that, and I

(08:21):
pay attention.
If it was anybody else, I'd saydude, you've got to lay off
that pizza in the middle of thenight.
But Daniel knows what he'sdoing.
In the middle of the night, butDaniel knows what he's doing.
There's so much here that wecould use to dive deeper into
what people consider end timeprophecy.
There's a couple of things Iwant to draw your attention to,
and then I want to remind youabout the most important thing.
First of all, I love the phrasewhere God calls him the ancient

(08:45):
one.
God calls himself the ancientone, the one who is before all
others.
I know if you're a Marvel comicfan there's someone who calls
themselves the ancient one, butbefore that Joker, god called
himself that first.
I also love how he talks abouthow the son of man we'll get
into that in later chapters thatwas the definition that God
used for himself.

(09:05):
But also, if you've ever readany end time prophecy, you can
see in verse 25, it says times,times and half a time.
They're kind of saying thatthat would mean a year, so a
year, a year and half a year,which is where people who are,
you know, your pre trippers andall these kinds of stuff, that
they get that idea of three anda half years and then three and
a half years equals seven.
It's just all that kind ofstuff, and so that's actually

(09:26):
one of the interesting things.
And I love to kind of pick onsome of my friends who are very
heavy into Bible prophecy,because you know there's
actually a part in here laterwhere Daniel is told to seal up
these words.
But they're going to, but theylike they've got them all
figured out right and that'swhere I'm sitting here going
dude, you have to try a littleharder on that one, because I

(09:48):
have this opinion about prophecyand that is this the Bible said
that when Daniel or it's notDaniel, excuse me when the wise
men came to Bethlehem to findJesus, or came to Herod's palace
, they asked the wise men whereJesus would be born and they
said well, the king will be bornin Bethlehem.

(10:10):
He'd be born like this, wherethey knew all the prophecies.
They just didn't know how itwould fit until it had happened.
Then they look back and they gooh well, that makes perfect
sense.
I'll go ahead and just give youa spoiler warning, because
we're diving into deep prophecyhere and that's exactly what I
think about prophecy.
I think that prophecy is givenin riddles for a reason, and so
we can know some of it to apoint, but I think that most

(10:33):
prophecy confirms what happens.
So many times it's not till.
After we look back at it and wego, oh okay, well, that's why
God did it that way.
So just to go and give you awarning, as we get further into
this and as we get into the bookof Revelation, I'm not going to
give you a lot of predictions.
I am going to tell you a lot ofGod's faithfulness and a lot of
what God is doing.

(10:53):
And what I love about thischapter is Daniel has a
terrifying dream, and the dreamis terrifying not just because
there's animals eating eachother and there's horns with
eyeballs, all this kind of stuff, but it represents wars,
devastation.
It represents that there willbe seasons Did you notice that
it said seasons when it willseem like some of these enemies

(11:16):
of God are winning, but I lovehow it says.
But then the Ancient of Dayscomes in and sets everything
right, and so it's almost likehe's watching the news.
He's watching what could happen.
He's watching the news and he'sseeing okay, at some point this
is going to happen, that'sgoing to happen, it's going to
get bad, it's going to get worse, but then, in the end, god's

(11:36):
going to win.
And so to me, the bottom lineis this is to lift our eyes
above the bad news and rememberthat God wins.
It doesn't mean that bad thingsaren't going to happen.
Daniel is watching chaos unfold,but, at the same time, god is
telling him I'm going to win,it's going to be okay, I'm going

(12:00):
to win, and so can I tell youthat, as we watch the news and I
don't know when you're going tolisten to this I love the fact,
with technology, that I ammaking this in 2025, but you may
be listening to this in 2030.
Like, I have no idea what'sgoing to be going on in the
world, but, you know, I canguarantee you is.
If we're all still here,everybody's still alive.
Can I tell you there's going tobe problems, it's going to be

(12:21):
difficulties, there's going tobe challenges that we're going
to have to face.
The challenges that I'm dealingwith right now in 2025, you're
going to be looking at in 2030,and you're going to laugh at
them Like, ah, no, that was fine, the ones we got.
Now, those are the big ones,right?
Well, the ones I got now feellike big ones, you know, and the
thing is, though, is God's notgoing to change, and I can
guarantee you person, and I canguarantee you person who's
listening to me in the futurewhich is kind of creepy when I

(12:43):
think about it you're going tohave mountains, you're going to
have valleys, but the Ancient ofDays is still in charge.
So, no matter what era you livein, no matter what's going on,
no matter what happens in theworld, the king is still on his
throne.
And so that brings us hope backdown to where we are today.
Wherever we are, whatever we'redoing, whatever you're facing,

(13:05):
whatever war you're worriedabout, whether it's one
happening across the ocean orone happening in your own house,
can I tell you God is incontrol.
He's not nervous, he's notworried.
He's the Ancient of Days andhe's going to take care of
everything.
He's going to take care of you,he's going to take care of me,
and so we trust him in that.
It doesn't mean we don'tprepare it.

(13:26):
He's going to take care of me,and so we trust him in that.
It doesn't mean we don'tprepare.
It doesn't mean we don't plan.
It's just we don't lose anounce of sleep because the king
is on his throne.
Let's pray right now.
God, thank you so much that youare on your throne, that you
exist from everlasting toeverlasting, and I am so
thankful to be part of yourkingdom.
I pray today, god, no matterwhat maybe somebody is going
through that you will remind usthat you're on your throne and
that you are holy and you arestrong and we can celebrate you

(13:49):
in all things.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
And what God's word says inDaniel, chapter three, when the
three Hebrew teenagers arelooking at the most powerful man
in the world, they say God isable to save us.
Even if he doesn't, we willnever serve your gods.
My prayer is that you and Iwill have that kind of
confidence and courage in ourGod.

(14:10):
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow.
For Daniel, chapter eight.