This sermon was preached at WPC Belconnen’s Sunday evening service on October 24, 2021. The Bible passage being expounded is Daniel 7.
While countless illustrated children’s Bible story books have told the stories of God rescuing Daniel from the lions’ den, very few children’s stories are based on anything recorded in Daniel chapters 7 through 12. And that’s because the second half of the Book of Daniel records strange and vivid visions that God gave Daniel to reveal to him what would soon take place. God revealed future events to Daniel in strange and often frightening dreams – in the same way God revealed future events to the Apostle John centuries later. John wrote down his record of the visions God gave him in the Book of Revelation. And a key to understanding Revelation and the whole genre of apocalyptic material in the Bible is understanding the apocalyptic visions of Daniel. Many Bible scholars today judge Daniel 7 to be the most important chapter of Daniel. One scholar writes: In a sense, the first half of the book gives the credentials of the prophet, the reliability of the messenger. The second half gives his message. Now, the message of chapter 7 through chapter 12 is really not new.… It’s the message that God is sovereign.