Day 241: Daniel 7–9 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Hey Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny Arango. Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by ARMA. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. Family, welcome to day 241. We are in the book of Daniel still. We are trekking through the book of Daniel and today we've got Daniel chapter 7, 8, and 9. Man, if you've done the reading today, then everything that I'm going to say in this episode is going to make total sense because you've got context for it. If you haven't done the reading, then you may want to stop this video, pause the audio, and do the assigned reading for today. It's Daniel chapter 7, 8, and 9. Now, I'm going to tell you right off the bat, Daniel is about to take a confusing turn, okay? So, we are exiting or we have exited the first six chapters which are narrative based and we are now moving into the apocalyptic section of the book. So, from now on, the book is going to feel way more apocalyptic and way more prophetic. Now, I'm also going to give a disclaimer here. On the Bible reading plan, pretty much so far, we've followed a Tanakh ordering of scripture. Now, in the Tanakh, that's the Hebrew Bible, and for those of you who are not familiar with the word Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, that's simply what Christians would call the Old Testament. However, the way that the Jews are going to order their scriptures, for them, it's not the Old Testament. For them, it's their Bible, okay? They don't have a New Testament. So, for the Hebrew Bible, Daniel is not a prophet. And I probably should have said that on day one, but we covered a lot on day one of Daniel. So, two days ago, which was day 239, we covered a lot of content for the book of Daniel. Now, I'm putting Daniel as a prophet mainly because of the content of the book that exists from this point on, chapter 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. So, this is a massive turning point in the book. Chapter 7, in and of itself, is a hinge, okay? It's really a doorway, and we'll kind of get into that later. So, I kind of want to just let you know this, that not only are these chapters that we're about to study prophetic, but they would be apocalyptic, alright? Most people would say that Daniel, especially these chapters, the apocalyptic section of Daniel, Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah are the founding fathers of apocalyptic literature, okay? These last six chapters are some of the earliest examples of apocalyptic visions. You can write these down if you kind of want to organize today and tomorrow, okay? We're going to get a vision of four beasts in Daniel, chapter 7. We're going to get a vision of the ram and the goat in Daniel, chapter 8. We're going to get a vision of Daniel's prayer in the seven in the 70 weeks, okay? So, you'll understand what that means when we get to Daniel, chapter 9. And then we're going to get the man in linen in Daniel, chapter 10. We're going to get the king of the north and the king of the south in Daniel, 11. And then sealed until the end is going to be Daniel, chapter 12. So, I kind of want you to see this, okay?

The book of Daniel can be thought about in six hero stories and then six apocalyptic visions. Six hero stories. Well, what are the six hero stories? Well, number one, it's Daniel's dietary test. Number two, it's Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue. We talked about that on day one. Then three, the fiery furnace, okay? Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah are thrown into a fiery furnace. And if you're wondering why I didn't say Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, because I've chosen not to use their slave names, but to actually use the names that God gave them in the Hebrew Bible. I'm using their Hebrew names. Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are names that Nebuchadnezzar gave them to insult them and to ridicule them. And I think it's pretty disappointing, kind of sad, really unfortunate that we know them by these really, really hideous names that either ridicule them as people or exalt Babylonian gods. So, instead of calling them by their Babylonian names, I call them by their Hebrew names, which are Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael. All right, Hananiah is Shadrach, Mishael is Meshach, and Azariah is Abednego. is a Bendigo. All right, sorry. That's our third hero story. Nebuchadnezzar's dream being interpreted. This is the second dream of Nebuchadnezzar. In Daniel chapter 4, it's a vision, it's a dream of a great tree. That's the fourth hero story. The fifth hero story is Belshazzar's feast and the writing on the wall, which only Daniel can interpret the message. And then last, Daniel in the lion's den is our sixth hero story. So if you're trying to organize the book of Daniel, we got six hero stories right at the start in the first six chapters, and then we've got six visions, okay? Four beasts in chapter seven, the ram and the goat in chapter eight, Daniel's prayer in the 70, the 70 weeks in chapter nine, the man in linen in chapter 10, the king of the north and the king of the south in chapter 11, and sealed until the end in chapter 12. Six hero stories, six apocalyptic visions. That's just one way to actually organize the book of Daniel. There's

another way to organize the book of Daniel, and this is really all just context clues for today's reading, okay? Chapter seven is the end of what many scholars would call the Aramaic chiasm. So there's an Aramaic chiasm, and then there's a Hebrew chiasm. You guessed it. The Aramaic chiasm is based on the portion of Daniel that's written in Aramaic. Remember, chapters two to seven are written in Aramaic because the author is in a very subtle way communicating that Babylon is trying to rob the Jewish people of their culture, of their language, and in a really real way, they have to speak in Aramaic because they're in exile. But chapter eight is coming, and when chapter eight hits, the author is going to start writing in Hebrew again, which is a subtle signal of hope, hope of restoration, that exile is going to be over, and they are going to be brought back to their homeland where they speak Hebrew. So there's an Aramaic chiasm. Chapter two and seven correlate with each other, and you've got four-part kingdom in chapter two, and you got four beasts in chapter seven. We're going to dive into those four beasts in just a bit because that's our first chapter of our reading today, and you got chapter three and chapter six, which is the lion's den in the fiery furnace, and then you got chapter four and chapter five, which is the fall of Nebuchadnezzar because of pride and the fall of Belshazzar because of pride. So that would be called the Aramaic chiasm. We got a Hebrew chiasm as well, and we'll talk about that in a little bit. All right, so let's kind of walk through chapter seven a little bit. That's all the context. Oh, well, now I guess let me give you the... Well, no, no, no. I'll give you the Hebrew chiasm when we get to chapter eight, but that's our Aramaic chiasm. Let's get into chapter seven. Let's give you some nerdy nuggets because that's a lot of context. I hope that you feel oriented, like you can organize the book based on the six hero stories and the six apocalyptic visions. Chapter seven is going to be a hinge. It's our last chapter in Aramaic, but it is our first chapter of the apocalyptic visions. Okay, so it's this portal chapter. It's kind of a transition chapter. It's actually really cool. It's the last part of the Aramaic section, but it's the first part of the prophetic section or the apocalyptic section. Okay, so Daniel seven, the division of four beasts. The first vision is the final piece of the Aramaic chiasm, and as such is a mirror of the first piece, Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the image. Okay, so chapter seven correlates to chapter two. It is essentially a vision about the same thing as the dream that Nebuchadnezzar has for kingdoms or empires that will rise and fall in the everlasting kingdom of Yahweh, that will never rise or fall, that is eternal. This time, the four kingdoms are represented by four beasts

that come from the sea. This is classic apocalyptic literature, and John in the book of Revelation is going to pick up this apocalyptic way of writing. All right, so in chapter two, I told you that there's a Maccabean way to kind of interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream. There's a messianic way, and then there's a dispensational way. Same is true for the corollary vision in chapter seven. The Maccabean way to see this is that the lion is Babylon, that the bear is Media, that the leopard is Persia, and that the terrible beast is Macedonia, and that the ten horns are Alexander III, which is Alexander the Great, the Diadochi, Alexander's successors, Seleucus, Antiochus I, Antiochus III, Theos, Seleucus II, Salicinius, Seleucus III, so far Antiochus III, Philopator, okay, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, which is the little horn. Okay, so these 10 horns represent these 10 rulers and then there's a little horn. Okay, that's the Macedonian way to interpret what's going on in chapter seven. So remember, in the same way that, you know, the head, the shoulders, the arms, the chest, the thighs were all met a different kingdom in chapter two, the same thing is happening here in chapter seven. Here's the messianic way to see it, is that the lion is Babylon, the bear is the Medo-Persian empire, not just the Medes, and then the leopard is Macedonia, and then the terrible beast is Rome, and the 10 horns are gonna be a bunch of Caesars, which is gonna be Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otto, Vitellius, Vespasian, and Titus is gonna be the little horn. The dispensational way to see this

is that the lion is Babylon, the bear is the Medo-Persian empire, the leopard is the Macedonian empire, the terrible beast is Rome, and the 10 horns are the European Union, and then the little horn is the Antichrist at the end of time, okay? Tons of different ways to see what's going on in chapter seven, but what I do 100% want you to see is this, and this is really gonna be, I think, really important. Anytime we look at the Bible and we try to use it to figure out when Jesus is coming back, we're already in bad shape. That's just not the way that the Bible's designed to be used, and so the reason that I tend to veer towards the Maccabean or the Messianic interpretations for passages like this is because these words written to these people had to have real value for them, and if we just say, yeah, man, this is talking about the end of the world, I just think that that's not doing justice to the real people who receive these texts, so I'm gonna lean more towards Maccabean and Messianic, but here's the other kind of thing that I wanna communicate, is that there will always be new kingdoms rising and falling. Actually, what the message of Daniel's communicating is no matter what empire you live in,

no matter what kingdom you live in that is ruled by arrogant, earthly, beast-like leaders, that you are called to be faithful to Yahweh. Like Daniel in the lion's den, or like Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael in the fiery furnace, you are called to be faithful in the middle of empires that don't know God and don't follow God and don't follow the teachings of the Bible, so I don't use these biblical teachings to try to figure out when Jesus is coming back, I use these biblical teachings in order to be Christ-like, and I think that is the big point, and I think anything else is kinda missing the point, but I don't wanna get off on my opinion, I just wanna kinda add that. All right, chapter eight, Hebrew is back, okay? We are speaking Hebrew again, and now we're gonna get a Hebrew chiasm, okay? So we're gonna get another chiasm, and so I want you to see, there are two kingdoms in chapter eight, two kingdoms in chapter 11. Daniel's gonna pray for Israel in chapter nine, verses one to 23, and then there's a man in linen who fights for Israel in chapter 10, and then there's 70 weeks that's gonna get spoken of in Daniel chapter nine, verses 24 to 27, and that is the center of the Hebrew chiasm, and we don't have enough time to really dive into it,

but those handful of verses are the center of the chiasm, and let's dive into chapter eight. Chapter eight is actually some really fun reading, whereas there's tons of debate in chapter seven about how to interpret this stuff, and which beast represents which kingdom, chapter eight is actually pretty straightforward. There's a ram and there's a goat. Now, the ram represents Persia, and Darius, okay, who's the leader of the Persian empire, the goat represents Macedon or Macedonia, and King Philip II is gonna begin to fight against the Persian empire, but it's really his son, Alexander the Great, that is going to defeat the Persian empire, and the vision is then describing how Alexander the Great defeated Darius, conquered the Persian empire and beyond, but then at the height of his power, died in Babylon in 323 BC, when he was only 32 years old, okay? All right, Alexander the Great had four main successors, these are the four horns. that we're gonna find in Daniel chapter 8. These horns are the generals that took over parts of his great empire Seleucus for Syria and Persia, Lysimachus in Anatolia and Thrace, Cassander in Macedonia and Greece, and Ptolemy in Egypt and Palestine. The little horn that grew later that takes away the regular burnt offerings and overthrows the sanctuary represents the Seleucid King Antiochus IV who ruthlessly attempted to Hellenize the Jewish people which led to the abomination of desolation. He actually attempted to

slaughter a pig in the Jewish temple on the altar really bad. It creates this whole thing called the Maccabean Revolt. This is happening in between the last book of the Old Testament and the first book of the New Testament in what Christians would call 400 silent years. I'm careful to not to say 400 silent years because Jews wouldn't call it that. Christians call it that and we want to respect our Jewish brothers and sisters which is also why I say Hebrew Bible and not just Old Testament if you were wondering. Alright the little horn is Antiochus Epiphanes who attempted to Hellenize the Jewish people which led to the abomination of desolation which was the three and a half years of temple desecration that led to the Maccabean Revolt in 167 to 164 okay which most scholars are gonna that's how they're gonna interpret a time time and half a time. I actually want to kind of show this to you and the Maccabean interpretation is gonna see the little horn as Antiochus Epiphanes time times and half a time is gonna be between 168 to 164 which is gonna be called temple which is a period of temple desecration and one like the Son of Man the people of Israel everlasting kingdom the Maccabean Kingdom. The Messianic interpretation for this that the little horn is Titus this a Roman Caesar time times and half a time is gonna be from 66 to 70 AD which is the Jewish Revolt which leads to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. One like the Son of Man is the ascension and exaltation of Christ everlasting Kingdom the Kingdom of God. In the disputational view the little horn is the Antichrist time times and half a time are the final three and a half years of the Great Tribulation one like the Son of Man equals the second coming of Jesus and the everlasting Kingdom is the Millennial Kingdom. So that's you know that that's a way to interpret this stuff so I know I kind of went back a little bit but I wanted to show you that three and a half year period from 168 to 164 really fits with time times and half a time but that's back in chapter 7 and I kind of wanted to show you how chapter 7 and chapter 8 link. All right let's actually move to chapter 9. This chapter takes place towards the end of Daniel's long life. He's probably in his 80s and at this point in this chapter is not long

before he's thrown into the lion's den. So I know he was in the lion's den in Daniel chapter 6 okay but this moment in Daniel chapter 9 is probably happening before Daniel chapter 6 which means the book isn't necessarily in chronological order but it is in a thematic order. Six hero stories, six apocalyptic visions following okay so six and six and tons of chiasms kind of everywhere. One of the things that's gonna mark apocalyptic literature are angels and we're gonna get angels okay actually we're gonna get Gabriel here in Daniel chapter 9. I'm pretty sure we're gonna get Michael maybe in Daniel chapter 10. Yes we are gonna get Michael in Daniel chapter 10. The 70 weeks is perhaps the most confusing and debated part of the entire book of Daniel. Once again each of the three views interpreted a different way. The basic idea is that there would be a great exile that would last beyond the 70 years but the last 70 weeks of years is just confusing and no one really knows what it means so I'm not gonna attempt to interpret it I'm just gonna tell you that it's really confusing and I'm kind of tend to shy away from explanations that are so far into the future that they're not really edifying for us in our lives today. I think that the real crux of of Daniel's argument is that regardless of when God is gonna crack in a human history that we should be faithful to Yahweh in the middle of evil empires. Full stop. Period. Family the wait is over my brand new book Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today I walked into a Barnes & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location so you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble or you can go to a books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy if you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective if you understand that the beauty of Scripture is actually knowing it in context then you'll love this book and if there's any chaos in your personal life I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller I really do I think we wrote a good one I think you should get a copy today all right back to the episode all right one

of the things that I really really really wanted to highlight for our timeless truth is the power of Daniel's intercession Daniel is an intercessor in a chapter 9 we're really really really gonna see the intercessory call in his life kind of come to pass and it says this in the first year of Darius son of Xerxes so by the way all this stuff is dated we're gonna get dates for literally every single chapter of today's reading and I'll kind of go back a little bit and tell you the dates that we're gonna have there we go the vision of the four beasts which is going to be chapter 7 is in the first year of Belshazzar's Regency which is right around 550 BC 55 years into Daniel's exile I mean he was an old man at this point the ram and the goat takes place not long after that in the third year of Belshazzar's Regency so maybe 547 BC Daniel's prayer and subsequent 70 weeks happened in the first year of Darius the Mede which was actually Cyrus or maybe a governor either way it would be the same year the fall of Belshazzar the fall of Babylon which was the moment that Belshazzar threw a feast that would be the fall of Babylon 539 BC so I wanted to just give you some dates for chapter 7 8 and 9 okay 550 BC 547 BC 539 BC you got a different context or a different date in history for each chapter that we looked at today and now for real for real our timeless truth for the day is Daniel's ability to intercede and pray it says this chapter 9 verse 1 in the first year of Darius son of Xerxes 539 BC a Mede by descent was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom in the first year of his reign I Daniel underserved from the scriptures according to the Word of the Lord given to Jeremiah so also Daniel knows about Jeremiah okay the prophet that the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years so he understands that there's a prophetic word that the exile would last 70 years they're coming up on I think 60 something years of being in exile and so Daniel doesn't just wait around for the prophecy to come to pass he prays into it okay because prophecy is activated by prayer and that's not just true in Daniel's time that's true today I remember there was a moment in my life where a really really really like well-known Christian speaker his name is John Gray pulled me out of a room just pulled me out of a crowd of

thousands of people prophesied to me something some of the most accurate prophetic words I've ever heard in my life and I didn't just sit on my blessed assurance and just wait for it to happen I prayed in that stuff every time I prayed I began to activate the prophetic words by reminding God hey this is what you said kind of give me some marching orders this is the prophecy what should I do okay so prophecy informs prayer prophecy doesn't mean that you know God said it so we'll just wait around till it happens no prophecy should tell us how we should be praying and Daniel models this I think this is something that should be modeled for us prophetic words are great but prophetic words aren't just some lifeless guarantee that something's gonna happen no you have to stir it up you got to activate it you got to use the prophecy to inform how we contend with heaven and bombard heaven with our prayers that's a timeless truth I love prophetic words but prophetic words should not make you lazy prophetic words should actually activate you to pray powerful prayers and Daniel is praying this prayer and gets a angelic visitation and one of the lasting images that I'll always have of Daniel from reading this book is a prayer warrior Daniel's a prayer warrior and I want to be a prayer warrior you should want to be a prayer warrior and Daniel should inspire you to be somebody who contends with heaven so that heaven can invade earth all right tomorrow we've got Day 242, we're gonna be in the book of Daniel again, chapters 10 to 12. Tomorrow we're gonna wrap up the book of Daniel. I think it's gonna be amazing. It's our last day in the book of Daniel and I'll be right here. And hopefully you'll join me for day 242 on this trek through Daniel, but really a journey through the entire Bible. I love you.

If you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. I'll see you right here tomorrow for day 242. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on The Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to TheBibleDepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow. ♪♪