These two chapters are very relevant for Christians today, for they refer to many of the things that will take place in the lasts days of this age. Yes, the visions of Daniel recorded here begin with references to times, many centuries ago, but they also deal with the last event of this age and the first of the new age, the Millennial Age!
“I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given 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,” Daniel 7:13-14.
I might suggest that the words of the Saviour in Matthew 24 imply that He expects His people to be familiar with the prophecies of Daniel.
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” Matthew 24:15.
It is very evident that prophecy was given to us as a means of warning and instruction, especially for the latter days. How we should study the prophecies of the last times as those times dawn upon us!
Please consider then:—
THE LORD WOULD HAVE YOU UNDERSTAND PROPHECY.
I have stated this many times before in articles and sermons but it needs to be repeated again and again in the face of the devil’s lie, so often taken up by foolish preachers, that ‘prophecy is hard to understand and best avoided’!
1. But that the Lord would have us understand prophecy is made very clear in these chapters.
“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters,” Daniel 7:1.“In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first,” Daniel 8:1.
“I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things,” Daniel 7:16.
“And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision,” Daniel 8:15-16.
These visions were given to Daniel to INFORM him of future events. How ludicrous, indeed blasphemous, to think that the Lord would impart information to His servant that was nonsensical and fatuous.
Yet there those Christians, aye even preachers, who are inclined to treat prophecy as if it was indeed of this character.
2. Natural man will always find the things of heaven and eternity that the Lord reveals in His Word, something that is hard to be understood. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” Isaiah 55:8-9. It is something like a child starting school and finding the lessons they face daunting but gradually they are enlightened and enabled to take in the information set before them.
Likewise, the Christian, at the first may find much that is in the Bible hard to understand but we can be taught, instructed and illuminated by the grace and help of the Holy Spirit.
It is God’s will for His people that they “know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,” Matthew 13:11. The process of obtaining this knowledge is exactly the same as the educating of a child — progressive repeated teaching!
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you,” John 16:12-15.
What a glorious Teacher the Christian has, none other than the third Person of the Trinity, God the Holy Ghost!
The method is stated by the prophet Isaiah. “Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little,” Isaiah 28:9-10.
As with our PHYSICAL growth and our INTELLECTUAL growth so it is with our SPIRITUAL growth — “line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little”!
All that the Lord would have us know does not come at one time, but is given in parts. The Book of the Revelation is an example of this. It is a series of ‘visions’, each one adding more information!
Among Dr Paisley’s first words to me on 12th April 1964 were: ‘Read your Bible every day’! Wise words indeed for that is how you build up a knowledge of what the Bible is all about!
3. When difficulties are encountered in our Bible study, we should ask for understanding. “I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this,” 7:16. The one who brought him God’s Word was asked by Daniel for help. Godly preachers are certainly one source of appointed teaching and instruction but we can and should go directly to the Lord Himself. It was the Lord Who directed the angel Gabriel to grant understanding to Daniel. “And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision,” Daniel 8:16. The words that are recorded in the Bible are given by inspiration by the Lord and it is by the words thus given us by God’s spokesmen that we are granted understanding through a prayerful studying of them.
4. The Lord promptly answers such a request for understanding. “I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things,” Daniel 7:16. It was not clear at first to Daniel what was meant by what he was told but it is explained immediately upon him asking.
5. It is thus a believer may come into possession of an understanding of what lies ahead! This is the whole purpose of prophecy. On his death bed, Jacob addressed his sons. “And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father,” Genesis 49:1-2.
‘The last’ days are days of special significance. They are days when humanity’s rebellion against the Lord reaches its height and becomes ripe for judgment. It is also the time when the devil musters his powers and seeks to overthrow the cause of God in the world, particularly in and around Israel and out into the territories of the ten kingdoms that will be formed, occupying the regions of the old Roman Empire.
What is prophesied in Psalm 2 will then be manifested.
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,” Psalm 2:1-3.
That which is written in Revelation 12:7-12 regarding the devil will also take place.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
Paul prophesied of the heightened lawlessness and evil of this season.
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away,” 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
Readers will know that I have often quoted these and other related verses in articles. No one objects to repeated storm warnings over the media in order that those affected will take the necessary steps to safeguard themselves. Just today (27/6/25) the following headline appeared in a national newspaper.
‘Spain braces for record 47C, UK to hit 36C, roads melt in Italy and wildfires rip through Greece… while deadly storms turn roads to rivers in France and Germany’
Well, scattered throughout the Bible there are ‘storm’ warnings regarding the “perilous times” that are coming. They are days of savagery and satanic activity.
Just this morning (27/6/25), I read these words in Isaiah’s prophecy and it is a ‘flood warning’, regarding events at the end of this age.
“When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD,” Isaiah 59:19-20.
Do we not see something of it breaking out amongst us? Every day there are reports in the news of the most horrendous crimes against babies, children, women and the elderly and frail. Usually the perpetrator is under the influence of drugs. Drug-taking is more common than the consumption of alcohol, for it would appear that drugs are more easily obtained, even by school children!
It will continue to become ever more dreadful until the fulness of rebellion is reached under Antichrist in the last three and half years of this age.
This is what the Lord would have His people understand.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
28th June 2025