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DOMINOES
Part
V
The analogy of a row of Dominoes that are
knocked down sequentially has been useful, as we’ve learned that each
“domino” that obscures your view of the future, usually holds a
clue about the next wave of knowledge.
In our last installment of Dominoes, we
sought to summarize what the prophet Daniel understood, as we hope to use his
visionary experiences to provide a clue as to what the text says he did not
understand.
Part IV showed how Daniel
built on the foundation of understanding, that arrived with the sweeping
“statue” prophetic dream of Nebuchadnezzar.
You’ll recall this “dream” imaged the four successive Gentile
kingdoms that were to dominate the Jewish people.
The dream was interpreted by Daniel, who
gradually became aware of these kingdom’s identities, which ranged from
the Babylonian Empire, through the Persian Union,
Alexander the Greats’ Grecian state, and the kingdom that
was prophesied to be in power when the Lord set up the kingdom of God.
“And in the days of these kings shall
the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed” (Daniel
2:44)
We also saw that Daniel knew the first two kingdoms
were the Babylonian and the Persian Union, but he
did not learn the 3rd kingdom’s identity – Greece
– until the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s
grandson.
This tells us that a lengthy period of time elapsed
between the two events, as Daniel “sought for the meaning” and
identification of the kingdoms (Daniel 8:15). The series has briefly
touched on the additional prophetic dream which Nebuchadnezzar experienced in
between the two events (the “statue” dream of Nebuchadnezzar, and
the identification of the Grecian power in the third year of the
reign of King Belshazzar, his grandson).
That second dream of Nebuchadnezzar imaged a gigantic
tree, which reached all the way to heaven. It gave sustenance and shelter to
the whole world, but then it was cut down by an angelic visitor.
“The leaves thereof were fair, and
the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all: the beasts of the field had
shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof”
(Daniel 4:12).
In that dream, an angelic “watcher”
descended from heaven, and announced the tree was to be cut down, the beasts
were to flee from it, and the birds were to leave its branches:
“The [angel] said thus, Hew
down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his
fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his
branches” (Daniel 4:14).
The “watcher” continued, and said the stump
of the tree would remain, and it would have a “band” of brass and
iron.
Daniel said the imagery meant that Nebuchadnezzar
was allegorically pictured as the tree, and the cutting down meant the king
would lose his dominion. However, the fact that the metaphoric tree was
preserved with a band of brass and iron around the stump, led Daniel to predict
the king would see his dominion restored after “seven times” (Daniel
4:16).
“Leave the stump of his roots in the
earth, even with a band of iron and brass…to the extent that the most
High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will” (Daniel
4:17).
The text itself tell us the interpretation came true,
and Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind for an unspecified time period, but “at
the end of the days,” his sanity returned, and the kingdom was restored.
“[Then]
was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from
men…And at the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes to
heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me” (Daniel 4:33, 34).
The king ended up praising the LORD who restored him,
as his great pride was broken through the tremendous trial.
“I blessed the most High, and I
praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation” (Daniel
4:34).
It was this prophetic
event that Daniel recounted to Belshazzar years later, when Babylon fell to the
Persian Union at the episode of the handwriting on the wall. Obviously, the
entire episode profoundly affected Daniel. We’ll come back to the great
tree that is cut down in a little while.
There is one prophetic
event in Daniel that is decidedly different from all the others, and it
involves “a dream and a vision” (Daniel 7:1). This one
occurred in the first year of Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson.
Unlike the other dreams
and visions, in which Daniel interpreted the image with details and
specificity, the particulars of the recorded account in the text demonstrate
the fact that Daniel did not fully understand the vision.
“I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in
the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me” (Daniel
7:15).
Similar to
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of four consecutive kingdoms, Daniel saw four
beasts rising out of the sea.
“The first was like a lion, and had
eagle’s wings…A second, like to a bear, and it raised itself up on
one side…after this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard...[finally]
I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and
terrible” (Daniel 7:4-7).
Since this dream had very
precise details, and in the Spiritual realm Daniel was told by an observer that
just like the “statue” dream of Nebuchadnezzar, it involved four
kingdoms, it is very important to note the text does not identify any of
them. After all, it was two years later (in the third year of Belshazzar),
that Daniel even learned the third kingdom in the original dream of
Nebuchadnezzar is “the king of Grecia” (Daniel 8:21).
In fact, at the time of
the dream/vision of the four beasts coming out of the sea, Daniel had long
known the first two of the four kingdoms imaged as the composite statue –
head of gold, silver arms, brass belly, and iron legs – were Babylon
and the dual kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. Yet the text
says Daniel did not link these kingdoms to the earlier four, nor did he
identify the characters in the vision in any way.
“As for me, my cogitations much
troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my
heart” (Daniel 7:28).
Clearly, this dream was
very different from all the others. Furthermore, the dream continued with far
more activity after the initial sequence of the four beast kingdoms described
in Daniel 7.
After the fourth beast was
introduced, Daniel noted that it was “diverse” from the three that
preceded it. Further, the vision then proceeded to describe ten horns
on the head of the fourth beast.
“It had great iron teeth: It devoured
and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it…and it
had ten horns” (Daniel 7:7).
For many years, Christian
expositors have assumed this “beast” vision of four kingdoms is
another version of the four “statue” kingdoms, but they have all
missed one key element – and it’s in the text itself.
In the New Testament, when
JESUS CHRIST
spoke of when He would return from heaven, He said in the end He would send His
angels to gather His “elect” from the Spiritual realm, where
their eternal life is already underway in the “four winds.”
“And he shall send his angels with a
great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from
the four winds” (Matthew 25:31).
Back in Daniel in the
vision of the four beast kingdoms, we also see that the “four winds of
heaven” are also mentioned, and they affect the course of human history.
“Behold, the four winds
of heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the
sea” (Daniel 2, 3).
It is widely known that in
the Scriptures, the word rendered “wind” (as in the four
“winds),” is the same word that is used for Spirit,
and well as breath.
It is the Spiritual
“wind” of heaven that blows upon the “sea,” which we
have repeatedly shown is also a prophetic metaphor for the realm of the
Spirit.
In the prophet Ezekiel’s
writings, when the prophet is shown the Spiritual death that had overtaken
Israel through the imagery of a “valley of dry bones” (Ezekiel
37:9), the LORD promised the Spiritual Life He was going to give to Israel
through the Saviour is imaged as the four winds.
“Thus saith the Lord God; come from
the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they
may live” (Ezekiel 37:9).
Therefore, when the
“four winds of heaven” blow – where the New Testament
tells us the Spirits of the Christians are at Christ’s return,
we can only conclude that the kingdoms that rise in response to this Spiritual
power from heaven are Christian era kingdoms.
Further, the LORD did not
direct Daniel to identify the kingdoms that would count down to the end,
neither did he identify the Ten Kings or the subsequent Little
Horn, as that knowledge was to be revealed much later, so the
generation that hears it would have the opportunity to accept or reject the
truth when they encounter the truth.
-- James Lloyd
To
Be Continued
