Daniel 7:11-18, Part 2

Announcer: Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah, and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.
Gideon Levytam: The study of Daniel chapter seven, but also the angels which are saying while the saints worshiping and praising God, saying, "Thou art worthy." When we get to Daniel in our chapter, in chapter seven, and these verses that we read, verses nine and 10, it also takes us, beloved, if you remember the chart, it takes us all the way to the time when the saints, the church, have been taken out of here, and it's the beginning, if you will, of the tribulation time, and God is ready to judge a failing gentile world kingdom. Okay, now quickly, this is I think one of the most beautiful verses is the next verses in verse 11. Now, we want to continue. What we get here now in that particular third vision that Daniel has seen. In verse 11, what we see is the destruction of the fourth beast. Remember there were the four beasts: the lion, the bear, the leopard, and that nondescript beast. What we read in verse 11 now, notice it says, "And I beheld because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake. I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." In other words, what we see here in this verse 11 is that the beast is being destroyed, but it's in the last stage of the Roman Empire, when that final, the eleventh horn that came up. And finally, that Roman Empire will be destroyed. We see that because it says here, "I saw by the reason of the great words which this horn spake." And you remember just earlier, we heard about that horn, the little horn, that was speaking great things. What was he speaking? He was blaspheming God. He was raising, speaking words against God and against the people of God. And so what we see here, that as the books that have been open, eventually judgment came and fell upon the beast, and that is the Roman Empire, also at its final stage. It says here, "Until the body had been destroyed and been given to a burning fire." And verse 12 now, notice the other beasts as well, what's happened to them. It says in verse 12, "And as concerning the rest of the beasts, which is the lion, the bear, and the leopard, their dominion had been taken away from them, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time." And you remember what happened. As the Babylonian Empire stopped to have its kingdom and rule over this earth, the kingdom had been taken away from them while the Babylonian remained, but they were no longer in power. Then the Medo-Persian, when they took over, they became the kingdom. The Medo-Persian took over Babylon. Well, for a season, until the Grecian came. They remained, the Medes and the Persian as a nation remained, but they were no longer in the same position that they had had before. Same thing with the Grecian. They took over for a while, they had their season as God had given them, but eventually the Grecian Empire stopped to be in that high favored position. Then they remained, the Greeks, up until today we have Greece remain, but they are no longer in the same powerful position. And finally, even the Roman Empire, which began, will also be revived in the future, but also will have an end. And so what we see up until verse 12 is that now, even in the third vision, that particular kingdom, one by one, will have an end until the final kingdom will come, and that is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus the Messiah himself. And so, if you just follow down now in the next verses, and let's see what happened. Verse 13 and 14 is the fourth vision of Daniel before we get the interpretation. Now, notice what we read in verse 13. Verse 13 gives us the second coming of the Messiah himself. It says, "I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the son of man." Now, this is a very important title. This title in Hebrew, "Ben Ha'adam," or the son of man, is a messianic title. In the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel many times mentioned son of man, son of man, son of man. But in the book of Ezekiel, the title there, or the name son of man, has no messianic connection. But not in Daniel. In Daniel chapter seven and verse 13, the expression the son of man, or in Hebrew, Ben Ha'adam, has a messianic title. It has a reference to the Messiah himself. And so what does Daniel see? He saw in the night vision, behold, he see one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the ancient of days. Notice, the son of man, that's the Messiah, coming to the ancient of days, this is God the Father. And notice what it says: "And they brought him near before him. And there was given to him, notice, God the Father had given the son of man, there was given to him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Now, I want for a little bit of time to dwell a little bit about this expression, the son of man. That's one expression. And the second expression that I want to dwell is the expression here that is found in verse 13, the clouds of heaven. You remember how when the Lord Jesus had been here on earth, and after he lived here for 33 and a half years, and you remember when he first he told his disciples that he was going to leave this scene and to go back to heaven. You remember what happened on a Mount of Olives there, that all of a sudden he took them to that particular mountain, and all of a sudden he had been taken up from among them in the clouds. And you remember in Acts chapter one, the angels who have seen the men of Israel looking unto him as he was departing and he's going to heaven, and they said, "Ye men of Israel, or ye men of Galilee, why are you looking at this one? In other words, you're looking at that same Jesus, or this Jesus, this same Jesus who has been taken out of you, will come in the same manner. He will return in the same way." So I would like just for a minute to go into some verses concerning this expression, the son of man, and also this expression coming in the clouds of heaven. So turn to the book of Matthew, please, chapter 24. This title, the son of man, is a title that the Messiah himself called himself every time he was speaking to his people, to the people of Israel in the land. Matthew chapter 24, and I'm reading verse 29 and 30. "Immediately," verse 29, "immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see," again, notice this expression, "the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Notice how the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah himself, saying of himself as he speaks about the tribulation period in chapter 24, the gospel of Matthew. He says, "You know what? Immediately at the end, and after those tribulation periods, this tribulation time," he said, "you are going to see," as he says here, "they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven." Using this expression concerning himself as the son of man, it's a messianic title, title that has to do with the Mashiach of Israel, the Messiah of Israel. He's called, he called himself the son of man. In Hebrew, we call it Ben Ha'adam, or Ben Adam. Ben means son, Adam means Adam, or man, descendant of Adam, son of man. Turn to chapter 25 of Matthew, just a page a little bit. Chapter 25, verse 31. Notice again, "When the son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divide his sheep from the goats." Again, this expression, you notice in verse 31, "When the son of man shall come in his glory." Again, a messianic title that he himself declare, "I am that son of man. The son of man is going to come one day in his glory, and he's going to sit upon the throne, and all the nations are going to be gathered, and he's going to separate them as a shepherd divide the sheep and the goat, and he's going to judge the nations of the world in this particular time when he's going to come in his glory." But turn the page to chapter 26, and see another interesting verse. In chapter 26, that was one of the things that troubled our Jewish people, the spiritual leaders of Israel. They understood that when he used the title the son of man, Ben Ha'adam, he has a reference to Daniel chapter seven and verse 13. Matthew chapter 26, notice, and I'm reading in verse 63. "But Jesus, Yeshua, held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, 'I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether you are the Messiah, the son of God.' Jesus, Yeshua, answered unto him, 'Thou hast said. Nevertheless, I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the son of man, Ben Ha'adam, sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.'" Notice what the high priest does. "Then the high priest rent his clothes. He says, 'He has spoken blasphemy. What further has we need any more witness? Behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye?' They answered and said, 'He is guilty of death.' Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, 'Prophesy unto us, thou Messiah, who is he that smote thee?'" You notice, beloved, how interesting it is. The high priest and the spiritual leaders of Israel knew very well that the expression in Daniel seven and verse 13 has to do with the Messiah who was going to come in a future day. In fact, they have understood that in connection with his divine nature, because notice he asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the son of God?" Jesus answering, "I am the son of man." He asked him, "Are you the son of God?" He says, "I am the son of man." "Are you Ben Elohim?" He says, "I am Ben Ha'adam." And immediately he understood that that's the messianic title that he takes, and he rent his clothes, and he said, "He is blasphemy." And so verse 64, when he said to him, "You will see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power, coming," and notice this expression, "in the clouds of heaven. In the clouds of heaven." Do you know that the spiritual leaders of Israel, the rabbis and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, understood the clouds of heaven has to do with only with a person that is linked with God? Now, this expression, the clouds of heaven, I want you for a minute to go to Psalm 104. Psalm 104 connect the clouds of heaven with the deity, divine nature of God. Psalm 104, and I'm reading in the first verse already. "Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain." Now listen to verse three: "Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds his chariots, who walketh upon the wings of the wind." This expression in verse three, "Who maketh the clouds his chariots." And the clouds become for God like chariots to bring him, if you will, from one place to another, if you will. This is in a sense an expression, the clouds becoming like God's chariot. And now here's the Lord Jesus, or Yeshua the Messiah, saying to the spiritual leaders of Israel in Matthew chapter 26. He's saying to them in verse 64, "Yeshua said unto him, 'Thou hast said. Nevertheless, I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.'" In other words, he was not only claiming that he was human, but he was claiming deity in this particular verse in verse 64. That's why in verse 65, the high priest rent his clothes, and he says, "He has spoken blasphemy. He has spoken blasphemy." In other words, he's claiming to be that which they did not want to accept: that this Yeshua, this Jesus who was a son of man, also was the son of God. And that he was not only the son of man in a sense of only being a man, but this is a messianic title, that this Jesus is none else but the Messiah, the promised Messiah that God said through the prophet Daniel in chapter seven and verse 13. "I saw in the night vision, and behold, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came to the ancient of days, to God the Father, and they brought him near unto him, and there was given unto him dominion," and so on. And you see, what the beautiful thing is that we do not need to even look into the New Testament, though we have to and we should, to discover whether who is the Messiah, and when he will come, and what is his, if you will, his credentials of being the Messiah. We see it right here in Daniel chapter seven, in the visions that Daniel has seen. The four beasts: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecian, Roman. At the final stage of the Roman Empire, we see that finally they will be destroyed, and God the Father, the ancient of days, was going to give a kingdom to the Messiah himself, which will never ever, beloved, be destroyed. You know, there will be one kingdom that will never ever be destroyed. Countries will come and countries, nations will come and go. Great men will come and go in many generations, even in our generation. Men that have had power and possession and authority came and gone. But there will be one upon a time when there will be someone who will come who will never ever have an end, and that has to do with the son of man, the Lord Jesus the Messiah. And so I think it's such a precious thought to get a hold on in our own hearts as believers in Yeshua the Messiah, that there is coming a day when the world that is so messed up today that we see today will no longer be in that condition once the Messiah himself going to take his rightful place in this earth. And so, just to verse 14, I am back in Daniel chapter seven and verse 14. It says, "And there was given unto him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."