Daniel chapter 4 contains the brave and honest confessions of a humble man – King Nebuchadnezzar! Now a changed man of God! It is a very exciting chapter to read!
“King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages that live throughout the earth: May you have abundant prosperity!
Daniel 4:1-2 NRSV
The signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me I am pleased to recount.”
Another large statue features in Daniel 3. But this time the statue has been made by Nebuchadnezzar to pander to his own pride and vanity.
Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, refuse to worship it. And the outcome is both terrifying and glorious!
“King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.”
Daniel 3:1 RSV
Daniel 2 brings us a description, not only of Nebuchadnezzar’s spectacular dream, but of Daniel’s God-inspired interpretation of it.
“In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed such dreams that his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him.”
Daniel 2:1 NRSV
Daniel 1 describes Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Jerusalem, the capture of Daniel and his three friends and their brave determination to stand up for what they believe to be right before God.
“To these four young men God gave knowledge and skill in every aspect of literature and wisdom; Daniel also had insight into all visions and dreams.”
Daniel 1:17
In Chapter 21, we enter a New Heaven and a New Earth which is too wonderful and too glorious to even describe (In our present limited state).
In Chapter 22, all is complete, all is fulfilled, Christ is reigning. However, there is a serious warning in verse 18: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book; if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. If anyone takes away from this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of Life, and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”
Revelation 21:1 NRSV
In Chapter 20, we see Christ and his resurrected followers reigning over a restored world, which is like the Garden of Eden, for 1,000 years – with the added advantage that the Devil has been put in prison.
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,”
Revelation 20:1-2 NRSV
In Chapter 19, we see the glorious wedding of Christ (the Lamb) and his Bride. We see Christ on his White Horse accompanied by his Bride on their white horses, preparing to reign for a thousand years over the survivors of the human race.
‘After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,
Revelation 19:1-2 NRSV
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power to our God,
for his judgments are true and just;’
In Chapter 18, we witness the fall of ‘Babylon’ and the destruction of the world economies, which brings great distress to the world’s merchants. We also have God’s warning to his people to come out of religious organisations that are false before it is too late!
“Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
Revelation 18:4-5 NRSV
“Come out of her, my people,
so that you do not take part in her sins,
and so that you do not share
in her plagues;
for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities.”
In Chapter 17, the ‘woman’ who temporarily rules the Beast is destroyed by the Beast and his allies.
1‘Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters, 2with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk.”’
Revelation 17:1-2 NRSV
In Revelation 16, the bowls of God’s wrath are poured out one by one. The Battle of Armageddon takes place and the bowls of God’s wrath are finished.
‘Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”’
Revelation 16:1 NRSV