Daily Lesson for Tuesday 29th of April 2025
The dream of Daniel 2:1-49 was first presented to a Babylonian king. The vision of Daniel 7:1-28, in contrast, was presented to a Hebrew prophet, a member of God’s covenant people.
Daniel is shown the same subject as was Nebuchadnezzar but from a different perspective. Instead of a statue, he sees a series of nations rising up out of the sea, the result of wind churning up the water. These nations were in a continual state of strife, causing a perpetual shift in power among them. Such passages as Psalms 65:5-8; Isaiah 17:12-13; and Jeremiah 46:7-8 use the analogy of floods and waves to depict the tumult among the nations.
In contrast, the Promised Land existed, at least for a period of time, as an island of peace and safety amid a sea of Gentile kingdoms—a sacred nation established on the solid foundation of God’s government, as opposed to the unruly nations around it.
Read Daniel 7:1-3. There is a lot of movement in this scene. What lessons can we draw from this imagery, such as the beast first arising from the sea?
Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com
Daniel watches the chaos of Gentile warfare from the shore, when suddenly the beasts start coming up on the land_—into his territory! Gentile problems had now become his people’s problems. They had chosen to live _like Gentiles, so now they would live with (and under) Gentiles. Starting with Babylonian domination, God’s covenant people never again enjoyed complete or long-lasting autonomy.
This loss of autonomy for God’s people today will persist until the close of time, when Christ is finally restored to His rightful place as our King. In the New Testament, God’s people continued to suffer under the thumb of the Roman Empire and then under the persecutions of the little horn, pagan Rome’s successor.
Though, historically, some nations have been better than others, and some eras have been more peaceful than others, the vast majority of the history of nations, peoples, and empires has simply been going from one tragedy to another, from one oppressor to another. And often this is all done under rulers claiming only the best of intentions for their own people. What a contrast to the rule that God had wanted for His people, if only they would have chosen it.
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How does Romans 3:10-19 help explain so much of our world? How does verse 19 especially show why we so desperately need the gospel in our lives? |
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