There are two clear sections: verses 1–14 and 15–28. And then Daniel wrote it down, that his people, and even we today, might be shocked and comforted with him.Īs disorienting as the dream can be, the layout of this chapter is actually simple. And into this context, into these desperate times, God gives Daniel a dream designed to shock him and to comfort him. Their situation felt dire, and it had felt dire for a long time, going on seventy years. And God’s people were in Babylon, of all places. God gave him this vision about five-and-a-half centuries before Christ, when Daniel was in exile, far away from home. Daniel’s Dreamĭaniel was no stranger to difficulty.

And my prayer this morning is that God would be pleased to have Daniel chapter 7 come alive for us, in some fresh way as we come to it, looking for real hope in our chaotic times. The Bible was written by suffering people in difficult times, and often the Bible really comes alive in our hardest times. And good days to be the church, and have the very word of God in our hands. We’ve all felt the rumblings of collective panic at moments some, in sustained ways.īut as scary as it can be to live in the midst of a global pandemic, these are good days to be Christian. These have been anxious, uncertain, even chaotic days. These have been unusual times, as all of us have experienced in various degrees - some pretty mild, others significant. But, of course, these were not the only plans to be rethought in recent months! So here we are, by video, on the last day of May! My wife and I were looking forward to coming and meeting you in person at the end of June. Providence Church, it is a great honor and joy for me to open the Bible with you this morning.

Sermons on the book of daniel