Daniel 2 Prophecy
Decoding Daniel Chapter 2: Unveiling Biblical Prophecies
This post is based on the transcript of my YouTube video. I want to thank Michaele Hamilton for proofreading and editing it.
You can access the PDF of our study guide here.
Hello and welcome to our Prophecies of Hope series.
I want to make this very practical. You will need your Bible. That will be our primary source of information.
We will study the Bible and discover some of its key prophecies. How do we apply these prophecies? What is the practical application of what is revealed in the word of God?
Thank you so much for joining us.
This is the very first episode of our series.
If you don't know who I am, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Marlon Seifert. You may notice that I have a slight accent as we go through this series. I was born in Brazil.
I moved to the US when I was about 12 or 13 years old and have lived here ever since. I finished high school in Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. I went to college in Tennessee. My first job was as a full-time youth pastor in Texas. I went to Michigan for graduate school, then back to Texas, then South Georgia. I am currently in Idaho.
I'm married to the love of my life. I met her when we were in high school. We met at church. We've been married for 17 years now. We have two beautiful children, a boy and a girl, and I am just passionate about the Bible and sharing it with others.
I've had the opportunity to do this on different continents and all over the US, and it's my pleasure to be your guide or facilitator as we go through this.
Tonight's topic is knowing the future. This is a prophetic outline for most of the Bible's prophecies. We won't cover some very specific prophecies at this time, as this is an introduction. However, it will be incredibly helpful.
I invite you to open your Bibles with me and read the Book of Daniel. We're looking at chapter 2. I like to begin with chapter 2 because this is the easiest prophecy to interpret. The interpretation is given right here in the second chapter.
If you would like to start studying Prophecy, Daniel is an excellent book because it contains some narratives and prophecies. When you understand Daniel correctly, you will also understand Revelation and some of the other things.
By the end of this series, you will have a decent grasp of prophecy. I hope you will know at least enough to be able to tell when someone is saying something completely unbiblical and not in the Bible at all. You will know enough to have hope and assurance in the God of love regarding the future, especially the things that are beyond our control and also what to do with the things under our control.
Before we begin, I invite you to bow your head with me as we pray.
Father in heaven, thank You for this opportunity to study Your word. We understand that spiritual things are spiritually discerned, so please send Your Holy Spirit to guide us in the study of the Bible. Teach us what You would have us learn and how it should impact our lives. Bless us, I pray, name. A’ name. Amen.
Daniel chapter 2 has a fascinating story. I will begin just reading through it. It may seem kind of boring, but I think the best way is to go through the Bible, see what it says, and then interpret it, apply it and understand it.
Daniel chapter 2, and by the way, I am reading from the New King James Bible. That is the version that I own and that I am used to reading. The Bible originally was not in English. It was in Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic. I just want to make that clarification since you may be reading from a different translation and it's slightly different from the New King James Bible.
Translating is always tricky. There aren't words that are exactly the equivalent to the original languages. We won’t get into the differences between translations, which one is best, which one is worse. You can research that on your own. I just want to encourage you to follow along as I read understanding there might be some differences and that has to do with different Bible translations.
It says, Now, in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him.
We are starting in Daniel chapter 2. To provide a little background, King Nebuchadnezzar is not the King of Israel. He is the king of Babylon. The story takes place in Babylon. There are some exiles from the Children of Israel there in Babylon. Here we meet Daniel and his friends.
The King of Babylon has dreams and it's bothering him. The dream wakes him up in the middle of the night, and he was so bothered by these dreams that he can't sleep anymore. It says that sleep left him.
Verse 2. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
Now it's interesting given what we now know about Babylon. We know that they studied the stars. We know that they had the hanging gardens of Babylon. There were some really intelligent people there, advanced in math and sciences. But it's interesting when we read this list, we catch a glimpse that at the time it was not really clear what was math, what was science, what was geometry or what was just magic, right? So all these things are mixed.
There are some really intelligent people. There are wise men, there are philosophers and magicians. The king calls all of them. Bring everybody in. And it says, verse 3, And the king said to them, “I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.”
I had a dream. I want to know the dream. I'm anxious. Tell me the dream.
Verse 4, it says, Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic.” So once again, right? Not English. They're speaking Aramaic. It says, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.”
This is what they do for a living. Tell us what you dreamt and we will tell you what it means. And this is our introduction to prophecy. We will see as we read through the story that God chooses to reveal Himself in different ways. One of the ways that God does that is through dreams. It doesn't mean that every dream you have is a revelation from God. Sometimes you just ate too much pizza before going to bed. Sometimes you're just thinking about something and it's on your mind and you end up dreaming about it. But according to the Bible, it's also a way that God chooses to reveal himself to people.
So they're asking, well, tell us the dream. We'll tell you what it means. They probably had their books with different interpretations telling them what certain things meant. People have books like that nowadays.
The king answered, verse 5, and said to the Chaldeans, “My decision is firm: if you do not make known the dream to me, and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made an ash heap.”
That's kind of rough. King Nebuchadnezzar, he doesn't do anything halfway. He's all in one way or the other. If you fail him, he's going to kill you by cutting you into pieces and then burning down your house. However, verse 6 says, “if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore tell me the dream and its interpretation.”
So, high risk, high reward, right? If you're able to do this, you will receive great honor and gold and wealth. You will be a rich and powerful person if you can tell the king his dream and the interpretation.
Now, here's the problem. How are you going to know? What was it that the king dreamed about? That is the challenge. Let's read on and see what happens.
Verse 7, They answered again and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will give its interpretation.”
Like, come on King, come on. Just tell us the dream, we'll tell you what it means.
The king answered and said, “I know for certain that you would gain time, because you see that my decision is firm: if you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you! For you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the time has changed. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation.”
Now there's a couple of different approaches to the story that I've heard and read as I've looked into this and tried to research it deeply. Some people believe that the king did remember his dream, but he is testing his wise men to know if they're really able to know his dream. The majority of people seem to believe he really forgot. He woke up and thought, what was the dream? I had a dream. I know that the dream was important, but I can't remember the details. I can't remember what the dream was about.
So here we have this difficult situation. The king doesn't remember his dream and the interpreters, the wise men, the magicians, the astrologers, the physicists, they could not figure this out. the king is getting upset and he says, oh, you're trying to buy time. You're hoping that I'll change my mind, but I am not changing my mind.
Verse 10, The Chaldeans answered the king, and said, “There is not a man on earth who can tell the king’s matter; therefore no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
So the magicians, the astrologers, the wise men, the Chaldeans, they all agree. What the king is asking is impossible for a human being to do. That's why nobody asks these things. They're trying to convince the king, right? Nobody else would ask this. This is crazy. There's no way that we could know. Only the gods know. And the gods don't dwell with us.
This is the setting for this story. There's something that was revealed to the king. The king believes it was revealed to him from the gods. The magicians are saying: We don't know. We don't talk to the gods. They don't live with us. There's a barrier, right? There's a problem getting this information from the gods, and they're afraid for their life.
Verse 12. For this reason the king was angry and very furious, and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went out, and they began killing the wise men; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them.
So now we have a reference to Daniel. Daniel is the one from the children of Israel that was brought as a captive to Babylon.
If you would like to learn more of the background of how some of the children of Israel ended up in exile in Babylon, let me give you some Bible texts you can read on your own. On your own time, you could read 2 Kings 23:36 thru 24:62 and 2 Chronicles 36:5-8. You can also go back to Daniel chapter 1 and get a little bit more of the story.
As we continue with the story, we're introduced to Daniel and his friends. To give you a little bit of background, Daniel and his friends were brought to Babylon as young men. They were in training to become wise men. It seems like they hadn't graduated yet. When the decree went out to kill them all, they had not been officially brought before the king as wisemen.
The king was so upset. He's even killing some of the wisemen that were still, it seems, in training. They were still in school, about to graduate.
Let's continue with verse 14. Then with counsel and wisdom Daniel answered Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon; He answered, verse 15, and said to Arioch the king’s captain, “Why is the decree from the king so urgent?” Then Arioch made the decision known to Daniel.
Daniel didn't even know what was happening. Why? Why are we going to die? Why so soon?
Wait! What's going on? Can we slow down?
Then Arioch explains the king’s decision to Daniel. We get the impression that maybe they knew each other a little bit. They've interacted before.
They are having this conversation and Arioch explains to Daniel what's going on, and verse 17 says, then Daniel went to his house and made the decision known, (look at this, these are his friends, look at the cool names they have) to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
The Babylonians have their gods, and of course, Daniel and his friends have their God, the God of the Bible, referred to here as the God of heaven. They start praying to God. The other wise men said, it's impossible. The gods don't dwell with us. We can't know. Daniel says, well, let's pray about it. Daniel and his friends get together and begin to pray to God and ask God to help them with this situation.
Verse 19 says, Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
To be clear, there was a problem, something happened, and people were not able to do this humanly impossible thing. They say, only the gods. The gods don't dwell with us.
Daniel finds out about the problem. Daniel says, I can talk to God about this. He begins to pray to the God of the Bible. The God that I believe in. Then Daniel has a vision and God reveals to Daniel the things that he's been asking about.
Daniel's response to this is one of praise and worship. It's singing. We do not have the music. I don't know how the song goes. We just know it's a song.
In most Bibles, you will see the words indented. It goes from being aligned on the left-hand side to a column down the center. This is a way the translators let us know we are reading a song or poem. When you translate, there's no rhyme, but in Hebrew poetry, there was no rhyme. It was depicted by a change in meter. There are different clues in the original Hebrew text.
By these clues we know, Daniel bursts into song.
Let's read verse 20. Daniel answered and said:
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
For wisdom and might are His.
We will learn more about this as we study prophecy. God is forever and ever. He deserves to be blessed, to be praised, to be worshiped. His wisdom and His might are His. He doesn't compare. There are no other gods that can compete with the God of the Bible.
Verse 21:
And He changes the times and the seasons;
He removes kings and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the wise
And knowledge to those who have understanding.
In this worship we find that God is the one who sets up those who are in power and takes them down. Lots of debate about that. It's a good topic to talk about. We won’t get too far into that right now, but we will address this without getting too political.
God is also the source of wisdom. That is why we pray before Bible study. If we want to learn, we want to understand, we want to be able to apply this, we turn to God first and foremost and tell Him we need help. We recognize that wisdom and knowledge and understanding all come from God.
Continuing, verse 22:
He reveals deep and secret things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
And light dwells with Him.
“I thank You and praise You,
O God of my fathers;
You have given me wisdom and might,
And have now made known to me what we asked of You,
For You have made known to us the king’s demand.”
Daniel now knows. He now understands the demand of the king.
Verse 24: Therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation.”
This is really interesting. Daniel could have said, kill everybody else. They're useless. Keep just me and my friends. But he doesn't. This was a perfect opportunity to expose all the fake magicians and soothsayers and people who claim to talk with the gods but couldn't really. Daniel is the one who has this intimate relationship with God. The ability to talk to God and receive answers.
That is available to all of us. We can all talk to God, ask questions and receive answers in different ways. It's not always a dream. It's not always an audible voice, but God does answer prayers. We will talk more about that as we continue in this series.
Daniel does not use this as an opportunity to have all of his competition, all of his enemies, you could say, destroyed. No, he spares them. He is merciful and kind to them. This is interesting and we will get more into that as we go on. Daniel says, this is a blessing from God. It's a blessing for everyone.
Daniel tells Arioch he can tell the king his dream. Verse 25: Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel before the king, and said thus to him, “I have found a man of the captives of Judah, who will make known to the king the interpretation.”
Arioch is taking some credit for this. Hey, king, you couldn't find anybody to answer your questions. I found someone, so it'd be nice if you give me a raise or a bonus. Right? I am not sure, but it does sound like I found someone, king, and he can help you.
Arioch also identifies that Daniel came from Judah, one of the tribes of the children of Israel.
The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, (Daniel is his Hebrew name, Belteshazzar is the Babylonian name that he was given.) “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen, and its interpretation?”
The king is unsure. Nobody else could do this. Are you sure? Daniel, are you sure you can do this?
Verse 27: Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, “The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king.
Well, big help you are Daniel. Thank you for telling me what I already know.
It doesn't stop there. The story continues. Verse 28. “But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these:
Daniel is getting ready to tell the king the dream. Daniel makes this very clear. He is not superior to the other people in skill or in wisdom or in natural ability. Daniel is giving all the honor and glory to God. He's saying, yes, these men cannot do this. Humanly speaking, it is impossible. I agree with all these wise men, sire, who told you that none of them can do this. I couldn't do this either except that God has revealed it. God knows the future.
This is why we take time to study prophecy. This is why I invite you to join me on this journey of Prophecies of Hope because the Bible describes God not only as being good and loving and powerful and kind, but God also knows the future. We are going to be exploring this more and more. Because God knows the future and has revealed certain important things for us, I think it's worthwhile for us to take the time to try to understand what God wants us to know regarding the future.
So here we go. Verse 29. “As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.
This is beautiful. The way that Daniel says, I am not superior to anybody else. This is a gift from God, and God has given us this gift for your benefit king. God wants you to understand the thoughts of your heart. I love this understanding because I also believe that the more that I understand God and God's will for my life, the more I understand the desires of my heart.
Now, we do have a sinful nature that can pull us to the wrong things. I'm not talking about that. I'm saying, my true identity is found in God. The better I understand God, the better I understand myself. The more that my decisions and my lifestyle is aligned with the will of God, the more fulfilling that life is, the more joy there is in that life.
There is a practical application and practical benefit to understanding God's will for our lives. It's not just someday in the future in heaven and paradise but even right now on earth. Life is better when we align our lives with God's will for our life. The more we can know about God's will, the easier it becomes, or at least you know which direction to aim.
Back to the story, verse 31. “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.”
When I think about the statue, I about the Olympics and the different medals you get. Gold is the head. Chest and arms are silver. Thighs and abdomen are bronze. And although the Olympic medals do not go beyond bronze, I'm sure the next would be iron. The legs are of iron.
The feet are iron and clay mixed. There is not a clear distinction from one medal to the next, like we have in all the previous ones. Keep this in mind. This will be important.
Let’s continue. Verse 34, “You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king.”
To clarify, there was this dream of a statue of different metals, then a rock, that was cast not from human hands, strikes the feet of the statue and everything crumbles. Everything disappears. The wind blows it away. There's nothing left of all these kingdoms. The rock that hits the feet of the statue grows and takes up the whole world.
This is one of the reasons I start with Daniel chapter 2. We have the vision, the prophecy and the interpretation all in the same chapter. You don't have to go from book to book, into the New Testament and the Old Testament, look at this and add these numbers, do this, translate that and do the math. Daniel chapter 2 is very straightforward and very simple. Anybody and everybody can understand this prophecy. This prophecy will also help you unlock and help you understand all the other prophecies in the Bible. Not every single one but the major ones. The most important ones, I think, for our day and age.
With that in mind, let's continue and find out the interpretation. Verse 37. “You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory;
Looking back at Daniel's prayer of praise. Daniel understood King Nebuchadnezzar had power because God had given him power. Even though he is taking the children of Israel as captives and exiled them and destroyed Jerusalem, God gave him the power.
That raises a whole different topic about judgment which we won’t go into right now but Daniel understands, King, you have power. You do. It's true. You are a king of kings, but God gave you that power. This is one of the themes we will keep repeating.
Verse 38, “and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold.”
I imagine King Nebuchadnezzar felt pretty good. I'm the head of gold! The most precious of these medals, the top of the statue, the best part of the statue. The head. That's me! I like this dream. I like this Daniel guy. Keep going. Tell me more.
Verse 39, “But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.
There is something weird and different about these legs of iron. We will spend some more time on this later, but it's important to understand, even in this dream, there is more time spent describing the legs of iron.
“Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided:”
So interesting. There is not a clear transition from one metal to another at the end of the legs of iron. They just become mixed with clay. It says, “yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.”
We see the Kingdom of Babylon, but it will not last forever. Later there will be another kingdom, the chest and arms of silver, and then an inferior kingdom to that, bronze, and then the legs of iron. That kingdom is described as very strong. It will crush all the other ones. Then that kingdom of transitions or morphs into something else, a divided kingdom that's partly strong and partly weak. They will try to mix but will never stay together.
Verse 44. “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. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
This is not a maybe. This is not a perhaps. There are those prophecies in the Bible. If you're familiar with some of the stories in the Bible, such as the story of Jonah. He came to the city of Nineveh. God said He would destroy the city. The people repented and the city was not destroyed. We have the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God tells Abraham, if I find 10 righteous people there, I will spare the whole city. There are prophecies in the Bible that are conditional. We can make certain choices and those choices will impact how God will react.
This prophecy here in Daniel chapter 2, Daniel says, this will happen, regardless. This may bring into question the idea of free will. Free choice. If God knows what's going to happen, are we making free choices?
One explanation I heard from someone else that I have found helpful is the idea of a barometer. The barometer can tell you the air pressure which tells you if it will rain or not. Does the barometer make it rain? No. It just tells you it's going to rain. This helps me understand how having the knowledge that something is going to happen does not cause that something to happen.
This is my understanding. God has a knowledge of the future. There are things that He will do that will be causative, but I don't see that as removing the freedom of will from us. If God knows how things are going to happen and He reveals to us what's going to happen, and there are things that God will do, it does not remove from us the freedom to make choices. It’s such a big topic though, maybe we can do another video on this.
That is the gist of this prophecy. I just want to highlight a few things.
The head of gold is Babylon. This is true historically. Archeologists have discovered things about King Nebuchadnezzar. He was really there and he really existed in history.
If you want to go deeper into this, you can compare the head of gold. This is the blueprint for some of the other prophecies.
Daniel chapter 7, verses 4 thru 17, talks about a lion with wings, visions of the beast coming out of the sea. They parallel this vision of the metals in the statue. Tuck away in the back of your mind, if someone is ever interpreting the lion with wings as something else, no. That represents Babylon in history and that connects to this vision of Daniel chapter 2.
In a similar way, after Babylon, we know that it fell and the next kingdom that takes over was Medo Persia. Now the Persians were stronger than the Meads. You can see this when you compare Daniel 2 to Daniel chapter 7, verses 5 and 17. In verse 5, there is a bear that's raised up on one side with three ribs in its mouth.
There are different interpretations for the details and there is a biblical principle that prophecies get repeated and enlarged. The statue is very simple, very straightforward, not much detail is given. When you get to the animals, there's a little bit more detail that really helps us connect prophecy to these political powers that happen in history. You can also compare this to Daniel chapter 8, which picks up this vision starting with middle Persian, and goes forward and adds more detail.
Daniel chapter 8, verses 3 through 4, and then verse 20. This would be the ram with two horns. One horn is higher than the other. Once again, this idea of the Meads being stronger than the Persians. This is an interpretation of what that means, but this corresponds with the arms and chest of silver.
It may sound like I'm throwing a lot at you. Don't worry about these details. I just want to give them to you in case you want to study this deeper. Or at least set the groundwork for further study in the future.
The bronze, the belly and thighs of bronze, that's Greece. After Babylon came Middle Persia or the Persian empire. After that, they were taken over by the Greeks. Or overthrown by the Greeks. You can compare this with Daniel chapter 7, verses 6 and 17. The leopard with four wings of a bird and four heads. Now the interpretation for that is the great conqueror of Greece, Alexander the Great, died young and did not leave a successor so four of his generals took over.
Some people interpret this as why the leopard has four heads and why it fits with Greece because Alexander did it so quickly, that's why it has the four wings as well, indicating speed. You can also compare this to Daniel chapter 8 which goes into even more detail. It's the male goat with one horn between its eyes that is broken and replaced with foreign horns. Once again, Alexander, he falls out of power, four new generals come in. Horns represent powers.
This is the foundation, the legs of iron. There is a lot more prophecy and details and time spent dealing with this and has more of an application for us even today. These are more advanced studies but I want to lay the foundation for you.
The legs of iron. This is the Roman Empire. They were still in power during the time of Jesus. Compare this with Daniel chapter 7 verses 7 – 10, verses 19 - 20, verse 23 - 24. This is the fourth beast with the 10 horns. Daniel chapter 8 verses 9 - 11. This is the little horn that grows exceedingly great. You can read more about that. This falls in line with the Roman empire.
Then the feet partly of iron and partly of clay. This is a reference to divided Europe. Rome was never taken over or conquered by somebody else. It just fell apart and Europe has remained divided ever since. People have tried to unite it. Napoleon tried. Hitler tried. I think Mussolini tried. There are some others throughout history that have tried.
Even the European Union. The EU struggles to stay together. We know about Brexit. Brexit was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. During that time, a friend of mine sent me a message reminding me Daniel chapter 2 said this would happen. The Bible says it will not stay together. It's going to remain divided. And that's the history of Europe.
Daniel chapter 7, verse 24 through 25. These are the 10 horns there are mentioned there on this scary beast that represents the Roman Empire. And then Daniel chapter 8, verses 9 through 11, the little horn growing exceedingly great.
Why start here? Why go through all of this?
One of many reasons, this is a great outline for other prophecies that appear in Daniel and in the book of Revelation. Another reason, that you see how accurate that vision is: the metals and the statue from the Roman Empire back to the Babylonian empire.
God said what was going to happen from that time forward all the way until Jesus comes again, or the end of the world, or the establishment of the Kingdom of God, and it was accurate. Tt was specific, exactly how many. It will be Babylon, middle Persia, Greece, Rome, the divided Empire, and then the end comes.
Where are we now?
We're leaving that divided empire time which means the second coming is the next big event in this prophecy. If all the other parts were fulfilled, it would make sense to me that this next part will be fulfilled as well.
Now, there are some people who are critics of Daniel saying he just wrote this later, after the fact. Well, it's interesting. There are some challenges with that. How did Daniel know so much about what was happening? Before archeologists discovered about King Nebuchadnezzar, they didn't know if that name was real or not. There are several other things that Daniel describes in the Babylonian Kingdom that would be very difficult for someone writing after its fall. The text itself gives evidence of someone who was physically in Babylon and had access to that information, which would be difficult if they're living geographically in a different place. I believe that Daniel was the real guy that was there writing these things.
Now, here's my question. What other religious books, or book in general, has done something like this? Given specific prophecies that are detailed enough that we can look at history and say it matches. It's not a prophecy; it is too broad. There will be other kingdoms. Yes. How many? You know what will happen?
The Bible says how many kingdoms. It says what's going to happen. It says Europe would be divided. You can say, but it says the whole world? We understand the whole world, meaning the reality of the people at the time, the cradle of civilization is right there. What's happening there is affecting everybody else. But yes, it did not impact Australia or the Americas at this point. There are some other prophecies in the Bible that I think applies. Or Asia? How far into the east does this go? I think that we can understand enough of the languages to know this is pretty accurate and unlike any other religious book or prophecy out there that tends to be very vague and very broad. This is very specific.
If God was able to reveal to King Nebuchadnezzar and then through Daniel the interpretation, and we have access to it to this day, I think it says something about the inspiration of this book and that this is unlike other religious books. It's not just moral guidance, even though there is moral guidance. It's not just a book that talks about the origins of things, even though it does address that as well. It's not just a book about the character of God, even though it tells us a lot about the character of God. It's also a book that reveals to us what's going to happen in the future.
I hope that this was helpful to you. I hope you'll join us for part two coming up tomorrow. Or if this has been posted for a while, it's the next video on the playlist.
Let me know your thoughts. If you like this, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to our channel and leave some questions in the comments.
Who knows, depending on how many questions we get, the kinds of questions, maybe I’ll do some other videos just going over more prophecies, but I'd love to get into contact with you.
Feel free to reach out. May God bless you. Until next time.
