“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” Continue reading
Author: Pastor Steve (Page 45 of 48)
Senior Pastor at Maranatha
How does man view the world’s kingdoms? Well, he is impressed, for the most part. He thinks of them as glorious – differing in splendor, to be sure, but nevertheless all worthy of some degree of honor. He is enamored of them. On occasion he is seduced by the secular political power. He sees the state as the greatest of all good and as an end in itself. Continue reading
The most obvious point to be made about the vision of the four beasts in Daniel 7 is that it parallels the vision of the statue, and this is true. But it is also obvious that although the two accounts are parallel, they are nevertheless not presented from the same perspective. On the contrary, the perspectives are radically different. In the first the outlook is quite human, the way a man or woman might look at these great empires. In the second the perspective is God’s. It tells us how God views the world’s kingdoms. Continue reading
“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.”
The material in Daniel 7 is parallel to the vision of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2. They tell us that God is in control of history, that human kingdoms will succeed human kingdoms until the coming of the Lord’s Anointed, the Messiah, but that in the end it is His kingdom that will fill the whole earth. Continue reading
Daniel and the lion’s den is perhaps one of the most well-known and beloved stories in the Bible. King Darius made a decree that no one was to make a petition to any god or man for thirty days except to him. For thirty days Daniel would need to abandon his customary practice of praying thrice daily before his open window in the direction of Jerusalem, or else be thrown into the den of lions. For thirty days! Continue reading
“We must not think that God is unaffected by sin or that He will ignore it forever simply because His judgments are postponed. The time eventually comes when that great accumulation of wrath is poured out against sinners. This happens to nations at the moments of their greatest arrogance. It happens to individuals. It happens when the judgments of God are least expected.” Continue reading