Dr. Stephen Phinney
Daniel #05 | Age of The Gentiles
“Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. The king said to them, ‘I had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.’”
(Daniel 2:1-3)
OVERVIEW
Our passage begins to deal with the period of history known throughout the Scriptures as “the times of the Gentiles.” If you are not a pure bloodline Jew, or you have not been grafted in as a born-again believer, you are a Gentile. The “times of the Gentiles” began when Nebuchadnezzar captured Judah six hundred years before the birth of Jesus and it will end with the Second Coming of Jesus—the beginning of our Lord's 1,000-year reign, which is His Judgment. Guess where His reign will occur? It will be from the throne in the city of Jerusalem. From this single fact, we can better understand the relentless attempts of Gentiles warring to “take the hill” of Jerusalem throughout all the ages.
THE INTRODUCTION
Marxism is totalitarianism. If we were to depict Nebuchadnezzar’s system of control in today’s culture it would be Marxism. Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini said it best, “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” Nebuchadnezzar functioned in like-minded philosophy: Everything within Babylon, nothing outside of Babylon, nothing will overpower Babylon. With this demented philosophy, Nebuchadnezzar gained the attention of God. Just as Marxism is divisive, deadly, and filled with mind control, so was the system of Babylon. Since Nebuchadnezzar did not believe in the Hebrew God, God decided to impinge upon his dreams.
In our culture today, we see that the primary pillars of Marxism divide the people, use deadly force when necessary, cancel culture, destroy meaningful monuments, decimate families, redistribute wealth, defund the police, along with a host of other degenerate modalities. Nebuchadnezzar demonstrated these destructive forces during the time of Daniel. He divided the Hebrew people, used deadly force, canceled the Hebrew culture, removed and divided the Hebrew warriors, decimated Hebrew families, and redistributed the wealth of the Hebrew people throughout Babylon to empower them further—all to force God’s people to bow to the king of Babylon. Doesn’t this almost sound Satanic? Well, it was! Nebuchadnezzar’s system matched Satan’s method of control throughout the ages.
FAITHFUL TO GOD
Without question, Daniel was faithful to God. While Nebuchadnezzar was having his dream, God was preparing Daniel to reveal the prophecies that were connected to Judah’s captivity through the time when Jesus would set up His Kingdom on the earth. And more importantly, Daniel would reveal when Jesus would reign over the house of David from His throne in Jerusalem after all human empires are destroyed, the very land Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed. A key factor is that God gave this revelation to Daniel at the beginning of the Gentile age, which included the depraved deeds of Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel and his friends were among the Israelite captives who were taken into Babylon. They were true and honorable Hebrew young men. No guilt was found in them regarding sins committed against God. However, that was not the case for the remaining children of Israel, which is why God allowed the 70-years of captivity for Israel. Now, these four men sat at King Nebuchadnezzar’s table and not just to eat. Those sitting at the king’s table were special counsel to the king, with Daniel the wisest among them.
It is not difficult to imagine that Daniel and his friends were broken-hearted over the destruction of the land of Judah, Israel. But all four of these young men were well trained in understanding God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and God’s personal assigned prophets. God made it clear that Israel is His Covenant Nation, and that Israel would be the leading nation of the world, whose Messiah would come at His appointed time to set up the eternal kingdom of Israel. As for Daniel, knowing that God meant what He said empowered Daniel in His faith in God. Daniel’s faith rested in the assurance that God always accomplishes His predestined plans for Israel.
SIX HUNDRED YEARS ELAPSE
As already stated, Nebuchadnezzar’s captivity of the Jews lasted seventy years. At the end of this period, God prepared Nehemiah to buy the Jews back from Babylon, which he did. The noted centuries that elapsed between the scattering of the people of Israel throughout the nations to the regathering of the people back into their own land at the coming of their Messiah (Jesus’s Birth), was the burden and message of Daniel’s prophecies. God gave the revelation to him in His perfect time—not one hour early or later than the appointed time on God’s prophetic timeline. When did this revelation begin? At the very onset of the 70 years of the Jews captivity under the iron hand of Nebuchadnezzar.
The mission given to both Daniel and Nehemiah, was a commitment by God to establish the primary government on the earth, and it was given to His chosen people, Israel, which came with a condition—that God would only lead or administrate each one of them through the righteous and Godly pure bloodline priests, and kings who feared Him and lived out His laws.
There are only two established races in God’s design: the pure bloodline Hebrew people and the Gentiles. This adds significance to Daniel’s prophecy. Noah promised a blessing to one son—Shem. Japheth was given the grace to be grafted into his brothers blessing, whose lineage later became the Gentiles who accepted Jesus as their indwelling Savior. This acceptance today is under the banner of authentic Christians who are grated into the pure bloodline of Christ. Keep in mind that the lion's share of Gentiles were Ham’s descendants who were of the lineage of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. It is in this that our Daniel story is prophetic and relative to God the Father.
THE DESTRUCTIVE GENTILES
The word Gentiles, ethnikos, means “heathen, national ethnic,” and “mere man.” Through the centuries, heathen referred to a man who denied the Hebrew God as God. In this stinky thinking, man formed gods to replace the Hebrew God—a modality the Babylonians became known for throughout Biblical history.
Droves of people have asked through the ages, “Why did God choose a heathen king to reveal the leading prophecy in the Word of God?” Simply put, it was to reveal the battle of the brothers, Shem and Ham. Secondly, the Word talks about the “divine rights of kings.” Meaning, God released kings to rule the fallen earth while using their depraved ruling to advance the spoken prophecies. As expected, God never forgets that the earth is cursed, for He alone cursed it. Finally, God turned the earth over to Satan temporarily and minimally, until Jesus’ Second Coming. Thus, anyone who is not grafted into the pure bloodline of the Jews is a part of this satanic kingdom, which certainly included Nebuchadnezzar.
To help us understand the full answer to our question above, let’s review what the Lord said to Jeremiah, which is rather profound.
Command them to go to their masters, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, thus you shall say to your masters, “I have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him. All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him their servant. It will be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence,” declares the Lord, “until I have destroyed it by his hand. (Jeremiah 27:4-8 NASB95)
This is nothing short of a description of the final Antichrist who Jesus Himself will battle. Was Nebuchadnezzar a precursor of Satan? You can count on it! The only difference is that Nebuchadnezzar was redeemable, and Satan is not.
THE FORGOTTEN DREAM
It is important to keep God’s timeline intact. Early in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, God caused a slumber to fall upon him. As he fell into a daydream state, ultimately falling asleep, he began to visualize in a dream. He saw a God-sized image which he described as “whose brightness was excellent.” He later said the image he saw “was terrible,” attempting to describe the size of this image. The bright light was a supernatural light cast from Heaven, which reflected upon the metals of the statue's image. As Nebuchadnezzar was looking upon the image, he was in awe and amazement. Then he saw another supernatural image—a stone cut out of the mountain without human hands. The stone destroyed the feet of this metal image. The massive statue collapsed and fell to the ground into powder, which the wind blew away. While Nebuchadnezzar gazed in wonder, the stone began to grow larger and larger until it covered the valley where this image stood before it collapsed.
I’ve had many prophetic dreams and a few visions; there’s a massive difference between the two. Dreams occur while you are sleeping, and visions are seen while you are awake. God has been known for using both dreams and visions throughout the ages. While we do not know why God uses both methods, we can state the most obvious: dreams can be blown off as, “Oh well, that was just a dream,” whereas a vision alarms the mind and tends to cement the message God intended. However, when God reveals His mysteries in a dream, we awaken with a burdened heart begging for an interpretation, which was the case for Nebuchadnezzar.
As the king woke up from his dream, he immediately called upon his magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and philosophers for an interpretation. The king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.” Since it was their job to unravel the mysteries of their king, to which they failed, our story begs to introduce the need for Daniel.
IN CONCLUSION
At this point in our story, the king was in serious trouble; the most disturbing trouble he had ever faced. Keep in mind here that Nebuchadnezzar was a king who recently conquered Egypt, as well as many other nations. His reputation was that he feared no man or their armies. And now, a dream paralyzes him in fear to the core. It was this dream that God used to shift his focus from man to the supernatural, and there was nothing Nebuchadnezzar could do to stop it.
The Video | Dreams & Visions
We always try to introduce our viewers and readers to the "next" series being written and produced today. Please consider watching this short video trailer introducing our next eschatological series.
Forward these blogs to your sphere of influence. The Rapture is soon upon us.
President & Founder
Dr. Stephen Phinney
Authentic Salvation Prayer | HERE
IOM America | Identity Matters Worldview Institute
P.S. If our mission resonates with you, please consider supporting our work financially with a tax-deductible donation. The easiest way to do that is through online giving. It is easy to use, and most of all, it is secure.
Comentários