Daniel 7

Daniel definitely got to see some strange stuff! After telling us of the vision of the beast (and freaking everyone out), God makes a promise to us before the interpretation: "Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a Kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion in an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away"- 7:14 God wanted to assure us of the outcome before explaining the vision.

I focused on the interpretation of the vision. "The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces." I couldn't help but wonder how this kingdom would be different? An interesting conclusion that I've read about this kingdom is that it is a revived Roman Empire and the 'ten kings' are members of this future realm. Did you have any thoughts of our current day climate when you read this? We've read about the other empires that were described in Daniel's first vision and I couldn't help but wonder what classifed the empires as such? It seems to me that Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome all had a knack for brutality and control...so I'd think that the last empire that was described in the first vision would have those attributes. Then, when reading about the 'ten kings' in verse 24, that would be different than every other kingdom described (to have more than one king). I can't help but get excited to read about prophetic events because of the promise that it contains- the promise of being that much closer to our Savior.

Daniel gave this prophecy some 2500 years old...and here we are reading the promises God made that He has yet to fulfill. That's amazing. We can see the framework of the things Daniel spoke about being setup today. It doesn't matter when it will happen, but I'm encouraged by our God giving us warning so long ago because He knew his people would need the encouragement- that they'd know what to expect. Revelation chapter 13 deals with a this new kingdom and the antichrist too, so He is giving us ample opportunity to watch for, prepare for, and warn others about the coming change.