The Festival of Hanukkah (Night 4) - Daniel 7 - The Rise of the Ten Kings & the Antichrist

Hi, my name is Chadwick Harvey Reach Bible Performance. Thank you so much for joining us tonight on night number four of the Festival of Hanukkah. We hope everybody is enjoying the Festival of Lights and the Feast of Dedication.

Tonight we are going to explore Daniel 7, which covers the rise of the beast kingdom, the ten kings, and the Antichrist as we relate it to Middle East events and current events. It also connects directly with last night's teaching. If you were with us last night, there is a direct correlation between the little horn in Daniel 8 and the little horn in Daniel 7. As we discovered last night, Daniel 8 is an end-of-the-age prophecy. Daniel is told three times by the angel Gabriel — in Daniel 8:17 through 20 — that the vision is for the end of the age. Because Daniel 7 features the same little horn, it is likewise an end-of-the-age prophecy. We are going to explore all four major kingdoms in Daniel 7, relate them to Daniel 2, and then turn to Revelation 13 to see what John wrote about the Antichrist beast kingdom and how it connects to Daniel 7. This is a very powerful chapter for biblical prophecy. Once we understand the four kingdoms, we can relate them to current events to see exactly where we are on God's prophetic timeline.

Before we begin, I would like to make a couple of announcements. First, if you would like to join us live on Shabbat, we will be hosting a live Shabbat service on Zoom every Shabbat — not on YouTube, but on Zoom. If you are interested, send me an email and I will send you the link. It runs from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time every Shabbat, and you can use the same link each week. A dear friend of mine in the Cayman Islands, Dale Gold with Elam Community Fellowship, and I will be hosting it together. The format each Shabbat will include about an hour of blessings, teaching, bread and wine, and reading of the scriptures, followed by open discussion so the community can participate. We moved to Zoom specifically to allow more congregation and fellowship. If you are interested in joining us, please send me an email and I will send you the Zoom link.

Now we would like to light the candles for night number four of Hanukkah and say the blessings. For those who may not be familiar with the lighting of the Hanukkah candles: we always begin with the middle candle, the servant candle, known as the shamash. This candle is representative of Yeshua the Messiah. We light it first, and then we use it to light all the other candles, starting with the newest night — night number four — and then working back through night three, night two, and night one. We always light the newest candle first. The shamash represents Yeshua as the Light of the World, as recorded in the Gospel accounts. Because he has ascended to the right hand of the throne of heaven, he now calls us to be the light of the world until he returns.

As the nights accumulate and we move from the fourth night into the fifth, sixth, and finally the eighth, the menorah grows brighter and brighter — just as we ourselves should be growing brighter every night. The Festival of Hanukkah calls us to go deeper with the Lord and to understand what this festival truly means. Over the last three nights there has been a great deal of revelation. We have seen, first, the theme of how to worship — light versus darkness. Second, we have seen the prophetic dimension, because of Antiochus Epiphanes IV, whom many believe fulfilled Daniel 8, Daniel 11, and Daniel 7 as the little horn we discussed last night. It is critically important to understand that Hanukkah is both historical and prophetic — it will happen again. Antiochus Epiphanes IV did not fulfill all the requirements of Daniel 8, Daniel 7, or Daniel 11. Also, the New Moon celebration of Tevet occurs during the Festival of Hanukkah every year, adding yet another layer of meaning. This is why we decided to produce one video for each of the eight nights, exploring these Hanukkah themes in depth. Hanukkah is a layered festival rich with revelation.

This brings us to the book of Daniel, just as it did last night with Daniel 8 — a very powerful, end-of-the-age chapter. Even though its historical setting involves Persia, the Grecian Empire, Alexander the Great as the large horn, the empire's break into four regions, and the rise of the little horn, Gabriel tells Daniel explicitly in Daniel 8:17–20 that the vision is for the end of the age, and he says it three times. The end of the age is not 2,500 years ago, not 2,300 years ago with Alexander the Great, and not 2,100 years ago with Antiochus Epiphanes. Those events occurred roughly in the middle of God's 6,000-year prophetic timeline, not at the end. The entire book of Daniel is written for the end of the age. Daniel 12:4 records the instruction to close the book until the end of the age. Daniel 2:28 records God telling Daniel to tell Nebuchadnezzar that these things would occur "at the latter days" — not during Nebuchadnezzar's time. We must therefore take all four kingdoms in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 and place them at the end of the age.

Daniel 7 and Daniel 2 are sister chapters. Both present four kingdoms followed by the return of the Messiah after the fourth — the beast kingdom. Many interpreters separate the first three kingdoms — Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece — placing them in history and then looking separately for the beast kingdom with the ten kings. That approach is understandable. However, if we recognize that all four kingdoms follow a single trajectory culminating at the end of the age, we gain the ability to see where we currently are on the prophetic timeline rather than waiting only for the beast kingdom with the ten kings to appear. We can track the full trajectory of what God is doing before the ten kings arise. And that is precisely what we are seeing in the Middle East today. We have seen one of these empires fall, another on the verge of falling, and a third one rising — exactly as this prophet described. It did happen in history, as we discussed last night, and it will happen again, as the prophecy says, for the end of the age. Reading Daniel within the context the writer himself established — that it is for the end of the age — brings the Middle East into very clear focus.

We will begin with Daniel 7, which will tie perfectly into Revelation 13. By the end of this study, we should have a much clearer understanding of how close we are to seeing the rise of the ten kings and, ultimately, the final Antichrist.

Daniel 7 is the vision of four beasts. It is a revelation Daniel received from the Lord during the latter years of the ancient Babylonian Empire under King Belshazzar's reign. Daniel received both visions — Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 — under King Belshazzar, who was Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. By that point, Nebuchadnezzar had already passed away, and the Medo-Persian Empire was on the verge of conquering Babylon, which it did in Daniel 5. Daniel told Belshazzar: "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin — your kingdom has been weighed in the balance, found wanting, and your kingdom is at an end." That very night, Darius the Mede overtook Babylon. The Bible itself shows us the historical fulfillment of what Daniel prophesied. Nevertheless, the prophecy is for the end of the age.

This prophecy declares that four major kingdoms will rise and rule on the earth before the second coming of the Messiah. We are not going to get bogged down in every fine detail of the prophecy. The extra details — the four wings, the four heads — do matter and are very important, but first we need to correctly identify the four kingdoms. Once we have that right, we will be in a much better position as stewards and watchmen on the wall to understand how close we are to seeing these ten kings and the Antichrist rise to power.

Daniel 7:2–6 reads: "Daniel spoke, saying, 'I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Mediterranean Sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: "Arise, devour much flesh!" After this I looked, and there was...'"