God Wins, We Win, Daniel 7, OT S1:E575

0:00Welcome to the Family Bible Journey, where we are leaving the legacy of faith by journaling through the Bible. This is Episode 575, Season 1 of the Family Bible Journey Old Testament Podcast. Today looking at Daniel, Chapter 7. The title of today's podcast is God wins, We win. Marquis vs. for today, Daniel Chapter 7 vs. 9-14, where we read. As I looked, thrones were placed and the ancient of days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand, thousands served him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The courts sat in judgment and the books were opened.

1:01I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking and as I looked, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. 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 is kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. This is the word of the Lord. So in this chapter, we are now moving into the portion of the book of Daniel that is visions and visions and visions. And for this reason, both Daniel and Ezekiel, they've got a lot in common with each other. Both lived at approximately the same time in the history of the nation of Israel.

2:05Both were exiles. They were living in Babylon. They're in the east. Both were allowed to see tremendous visions of future glory of God and his people. And because these visions are so abstract and so powerful and elusive to us, there are many who are going to spend their entire lifetimes claiming to know what these things mean and finding modern parallels to current events that relate to this passage or that passage and try to demonstrate where we are in the timeline of all things is to try to figure out as if Christ is returning sooner if it's going to be delayed. And of course, it's always sooner than later. And I don't want to waste our time in such needless speculation as we talk about in the book of Revelation and we talk about an Ezekiel and Isaiah and many of the other prophets,

3:07the prophets themselves. John the Apostle Paul, when he was taken up into the heavens to see the glories of heaven above. These men couldn't have possibly themselves understood fully what they were seeing. They were seeing things that didn't make any sense to them. We see Daniel, we see John, we see Ezekiel, we see many of these prophets and the apostles Paul and John falling down before the angels, falling down before the messengers, falling down as dead men in the midst of their own visions because they're just completely overwhelmed by what they see. They didn't fully grasp what they were seeing, but they did faithfully record it for us. They did faithfully preserve these visions for us so that we would be encouraged in our faith and not be discouraged by the hidden will of God, but rather that we would see and all of these visions that in the end God wins.

4:08And because God wins, we too are going to win. All who find themselves in the family of God brought to faith by the power of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We are the redeemed, we are the victorious, and we have been given this victory by faith through grace and the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. And so my note at the beginning of chapter 7, it says chapter 7 and following. Daniel, like John and Ezekiel, see things he can't understand yet records them accurately for our benefit. And I also have a note on that chapter 7, it says God wins exclamation point. That's all we need to take from this chapter. But even though that's the main message and the most important message, there are some other things we want to pay attention to. For one, I have verses 13 and 14 highlighted in red, green, and blue as a most important passage. And I have those verses marked with the red chiro because this is Jesus' heavenly coronation.

5:15And my note here on this particular set of verses is the coronation of our King. He, who on earth was crowned with thorns, will forever be crowned with glory. This is a beautiful description of Christ receiving his rightful place and taking his rightful place at the right hand of the Father. And he is pictured here not just as a divine being, but he is also pictured here as a son of man because he is the son of man. He is Jesus of Nazareth, born of the Virgin Mary, who is a true, real, flesh and blood human being like every single one of us. But by the mystery of the love of God is also the very son of God, the timeless and eternal second person of the Trinity because in Christ Jesus, God and man are one.

6:16And they are one in a way that can never be separated. They cannot be divorced from one another. Wherever Jesus is, God is. Wherever Jesus is done, a man has done. And so Jesus, as the God man, is the linchpin in our relationship with God forever. He is the source, the author of our life. He is the perfection and the fulfillment of our faith. He is perfect obedience, perfect righteousness, perfect justice, who on this side of eternity, on the earthly side of the coin. Received in Himself all sorts of sin and hatred and evil He was persecuted. He suffered. The world did to Jesus what the world does to God by casting Him aside, calling Him the liar and acting as if any and every way is better than His way. That's what the world does.

7:16The world makes a mockery of God. And because the world makes a mockery of God, this fallen world that is corrupt, that is sinful, that is selfish, that is evil, this sinful world did to Jesus. What we left to our own devices, left to our sinful, selfish nature and evil desires are going to do to God every time. We are going to go our own way as Adam and Eve did. We have inherited that sin inside of ourselves. And yet God sent His Son Jesus into the world. God Himself came into this world that He could suffer, that He would die, that He would take our place under God's wrath, so that through His life death and resurrection, we can have the forgiveness of sin. We can become the righteousness of God. A righteousness that is not our own, a righteousness that we did not earn, but rather a righteousness that is Christ's righteousness, a gift that has been given to us by God.

8:18For the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. And so as we look at these visions here in this portion of Daniel, and we are going to see some fanciful things, and we are going to hear some descriptions of things that have not yet happened, maybe some of them have, instead of trying to figure out what is and what isn't, what has happened, what is yet to come, we are going to look for God, His action, to see that our place is safe with Him. That because God wins, we win in the end, and that by His grace, we have been invited into a glorious and wonderful future that is nothing but light and life and love simply because He loves us. And because He loves us, even though the world is at war, we look forward to peace with God when He returns again in His glory. If you appreciate the faith and perspective of the family Bible journey, and you would

9:21like to see how our sister organization, Genesis Group, that's G-E-N-Y-S-DashGroup.com, is helping our clients discover new life in ministry, go to the website, or look for Genesis Group on social media and YouTube, where we regularly share stories of the new life that our clients are discovering in ministry. Our blessing for today, may you take to heart the main message of every end times prophecy, God wins, and we will win, and reign with Him by His mercy and grace. Amen.