A pagan king threatened to kill his wisemen because they couldn’t interpret his dream, but a Jewish captive was giventhe secrets. Daniel chapter 2 gives one of the most amazing prophecies ever recorded—and proves God’s Word can betrusted. Part 1 of 2

A pagan king threatened to kill his wisemen because they couldn’t interpret his dream, but a Jewish captive was giventhe secrets. Daniel chapter 2 gives one of the most amazing prophecies ever recorded—and proves God’s Word can betrusted. Part 1 of 2

Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.

Amazing Facts

The Prophecy of History

Doug Batchelor

The Prophecy of History, Part 1

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

Coming to you from New York City at the historic Manhattan Center with your host, Doug Batchelor.

Join this exciting journey of discovery as we learn the truth about Bible prophecy, explore the timeless wisdom of God's Word, and see how it relates to our lives today.

Tonight we're going to be studying 1 of the most important subjects dealing with the prophecy of history.

And if I was going to take 1 Bible subject and say, this is the study of prophecy that we're going to have tonight that convinced me that the Bible is a supernatural book.

Well, we always like to begin with an amazing fact, and I'm going to get my little clicker here that will take us through some of these things.

From the very beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, we hear about a kingdom called Babylon.

Now, if you have your Bibles on your phone or if you've got a hard copy of the Bible, you might want to turn to the book of Daniel, chapter 2.

Not far from the middle of the Bible there, Daniel chapter 2.

Let me give you a little amazing fact about Babylon.

Ancient Babylon had a massive impact on world history.

It was a center of earthly mathematics, astronomy, and technology innovation.

The Babylonians invented the wheel for work carts and chariots, sailboats to trade on the Euphrates River.

Babylon also developed a unique numerical system based on the lunar calendar with 360 days, which is by the way, the same calendar as the Jews.

Make a mental note of that because a year with 360 days comes up later in understanding time prophecies.

30 days in a month is how they calculated units for measurement, and this is why we've got 60 seconds in a minute, and you've got the number 60 is all through the Babylonian calculations.

They also divided the stardy heavens into 36 constellations.

Interestingly, now don't miss this, the Babylonian sacred square is composed of 6 boxes by 6 boxes with a number 1 in box 1, number 234.

When you add all those up, 1 through 36, it comes to 666.

Babylon appears in the book of Revelation.

And I hope you don't know what a roulette wheel is, but you know a roulette wheel has got 36 numbers on it.

And if you add 1 plus 2 plus 3 up to 36, it comes to 666.

Did you know if you add up the first 6 Roman numerals, you know, the Roman numerals IVX, so forth, adds up to 666.

So this is going to play into prophecy, but that's just to whet your appetite.

So the zenith of Babylonian history was during the reign of someone by the name of Nebuchadnezzar II.

And we don't know much or hear much about Nebuchadnezzar I, but Nebuchadnezzar II was an extremely intelligent, well-educated man, a master military man, and an administrator, and he could also be brutal and ruthless, which is 1 reason he was able to conquer, struck fear into everybody.

The zenith of the Babylonian Empire was from about 612 to 539 B.C.

And Nebuchadnezzar, in about 597, he came and that was his first invasion of the land of Israel.

During that time, he carried away about 10, 000 captives.

Among the captives that he carried away from Israel, back to Babylon, there were 4 young men.

By the way, this had been foretold by the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was told by Isaiah, your sons that issue from you will be carried off to the kingdom of Babylon and made eunuchs and this is exactly what happened several hundred years later So it's just a little map on the screen here for those that are watching to give you an idea of the extent of the Babylonian kingdom at its zenith, touching on the shores of 5 major oceans.

Now, while we go through the prophecy tonight, I want to make something very clear.

We're going to be talking about the major empires of the world that were foretold in prophecy before they existed.

And the reason these empires are highlighted is they all occupied God's people that were then Israel.

And this was also the crossroads between 3 continents of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

So they saw this as a world empire because they controlled the trade between these continents.

So at the zenith of his power, and Nebuchadnezzar, he had an incredible passion for building, so he's building.

How many of you have heard of the 7 wonders of the ancient world?

The only 1 that still survives today are the pyramids of Giza.

Karen and I were there a couple of years ago.

And they had things like the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

1 of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, according to Herodotus the historian, was the hanging gardens of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar married a girl from the mountains, and Babylon is a plain.

She was constantly homesick because there were no mountains.

He said, I will plant trees and mountains and flowers.

And he built these beautiful, exotic hanging gardens.

And some of the ancient historians say he had found some method to pump water from the Euphrates River up and irrigate it so there were waterfalls coming down from this man-made mountain that he had.

So you have the picture in your mind, this massive kingdom, very powerful, very opulent.

1 historian says that it was 60 miles around the perimeter.

Nebuchadnezzar went to sleep 1 night, and he was very proud of the way that God had blessed him.

He was a proud man, and he knew this kingdom was great, and he wondered how long it would last.

He understood history, how 1 kingdom fights against another, and in the midst of his sleeping this night, troubled, wondering how long the kingdom would last, he had a dream that was unlike any other dream.

I don't know if you've had a dream and you said, that wasn't a normal dream, that was a three-dimensional dream.

Now, if you have your Bibles, we're going to pause here, and we're going to read about this.

If you go to the book of Daniel, chapter 2, we're not going to read the whole chapter, but we're going to do the introduction to this dream that Nebuchadnezzar had and what that stood for.

Daniel, chapter 2, and we'll read the first few verses here.

Verse 1, Daniel chapter 2, now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, this isn't the second year that he was out fighting and conquering, but after his father died and he had complete control.

In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him.

Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, astrologers, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams.

So they came and they stood before the king.

He had a pretty big entourage of wise men and counselors, and they were all into the, You know, the occult-ish arts, and some of them were stargazers.

And supposedly, these are the wise men, the spiritual men.

So, they came and stood before him, and the king said, I've had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.

And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever.

Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.

You see, they were in the business of the king would give a dream, and they'd concoct some interpretation to try to satisfy him.

But he thought, no, no, no, I'm not a fool.

He said, I want to know what this dream means, and I don't want you to just manufacture something.

He says, if you're really wise men, and you're really connected with the gods, here's your chance to prove your mettle.

Not only because that'll be good proof, but because it's starting to get fuzzy.

How many of you have had a dream and you thought, wow, it was vivid and half an hour later, you know, your dream is happening in a different brain level from your consciousness.

And as you get into full consciousness, the dream is hard to access.

And he's saying, I'll remember it when I hear it, but if you're wise, then you tell me what I dream, And then I'll know you know the interpretation." In verse 7, they said, King, let the king tell his servants the dream and we'll give the interpretation.

And the king answered and said rather sternly, I know for a certain that you would gain time.

You're stalling because you see my decision as firm.

If you do not make known the dream to me, there's only 1 decree for you.

You're on the royal payroll and you're worthless, like others on the royal payroll around the world.

You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the time has changed.

The Prophecy of History, Pt. 2

In our last episode, we learned how God gave the ancient king Nebuchadnezzar a Fascinating dream of a giant statue that was full of prophetic symbols and imagery today We'll continue this eye-opening study of how God revealed the meaning of the dream through his prophet Daniel.

You'll discover how this stunning prophecy was fulfilled in world history.

Remember, if you'd like to deepen your Bible knowledge, check out our Prophecy Odyssey Bible lessons and our free offer.

I'll tell you more about how you can get those resources later in the program.

Okay, it's time to get into today's presentation.

This vision is dealing with the empires that occupied God's people that were the guardians of the Word.

You realize that the Jewish nation, God gave the oracles of truth to them.

And if you, by the way, if you're a Christian, the Bible says you are Abraham's seed.

So, this is talking about the preservation of God's Word that would go to the world, the kingdoms that occupied them.

And you're gonna see all this if you paid any attention at all when you were in elementary school to world history.

We know about Babylon, how it was a world empire.

Amazing fact, historians say the walls of Babylon were over 200 feet high and 50 feet wide, allowing for 4 chariots to ride abreast on the top of the walls.

And as I said, 1 historian said they were 15 miles on each side.

And they thought it would never be conquered.

Once again, the map that talks about the extent of their domain was massive, controlling the trade between 3 continents.

If you've never been there, it is the richest city in the world.

Maybe it's Singapore, Dubai, but Dubai is different.

Just this city was built out of the desert.

They've got a river of money that flows into that city from oil.

And I have been in hotel rooms that had, I didn't stay there, someone showed it to me, that had golden toilet seats.

I mean, the wealth, the cars there, Bergattis, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, everywhere.

Car 5 or 6 years old, not allowed on the road, too old.

Well, Babylon was like the Dubai back then.

Number 7, would the kingdom of Babylon last forever?

As he slept, he said, what will happen to my posterity?

Nebuchadnezzar reigned about 39 years, and he wanted his sons, his successors, to have an eternal dynasty.

But Daniel said, no, it's not going to happen that way.

Now, you need to know how it happened historically.

It's given a little bit in the Bible, but not all the detail.

The Euphrates River ran under the walls of Babylon, And the Euphrates River was much bigger then than it is now.

By the way, there's a prophecy in Revelation that said that the Euphrates River will dry up in the sixth plague.

Did you know all you have to do is listen to news reports and they say the Euphrates River's drying up?

Now I don't think we're in the sixth plague yet.

We'll explain the plagues later, but I think it's very interesting.

Well, they had mighty ships that were navigating way up the Euphrates River.

Now, man, You can't drag a toad through the river.

It's becoming a series of stagnating pools down because Turkey and up higher, they're damming the water and there's been droughts and things have changed.

But what happened is after Nebuchadnezzar died, for 1 year his son, Edelmerodok, was king and he was assassinated and it ended up, his uncle ended up becoming king, and the uncle was off fighting other battles, and the grandson, Belshazzar, was in charge of the kingdom.

And the Persians and the Medes realized that they did not have the military might, meaning the Babylonians, that the Persians had.

Nebuchadnezzar was gone and he was a military genius.

And Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede, they thought we can conquer Babylon.

The king, this young whippersnapper, and you find this in Daniel chapter 5, Belshazzar said, we don't need to be afraid of them.

We've got the water running under the walls.

They can't sustain their army long enough.

And they had a big party in the city of Babylon and they all got drunk and in the peak of the Reveille, this blasphemous young king, he knew that his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had been turned to Jehovah from Daniel.

And really they resented that and he said, this God of the Jews, He has no power and we're going to prove it.

Bring me the vessels we captured from Jerusalem.

And they took the holy vessels from the temple of God and all of the Babylonian lords and leaders began to drink and to mock the God of heaven, Jehovah.

And in the middle of this blasphemous drunken revelry, all of a sudden, over against the plaster on the wall a bloodless giant hand appeared, kind of like Thing in the Addams family.

And it began to write the words, Meenie, meenie, teakle, you farson.

You've ever heard the expression of handwriting on the wall?

And when the king looked up and everybody saw this, they dropped their cups and their knees began...

The Bible says his knees were smiting together.

They didn't know any more than they knew 39 years earlier when Nebuchadnezzar called them.

And finally, the queen mother said, you know, if you want to understand a vision, you need to call in a Jew.

And there is a man in your kingdom, gives me goosebumps whenever I say that.

The king said, tell me what the writing says and I'll give you a golden necklace like he carried, you know, and a special garment and make you third ruler in the kingdom.

Series

The Prophecy of History

The Prophecy of History, Part 1

Transcript

Description

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