Щоденні біблійні уроки

MEMORY VERSE: “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom” (Daniel 7:21, 22).

Suggested Reading: The Great Controversy, pp. 479–491; Early Writings, pp. 54–56.

“As we near the close of this world’s history, the prophecies recorded by Daniel demand our special attention, as they relate to the very time in which we are living.”—Prophets and Kings, p. 547.

1.  FOUR WINDS, FOUR BEASTSSun, Apr 19

a.  When did Daniel receive his first prophetic vision, and how did he respond to it?

Daniel 7:1, 15, 16 (first part): 1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. 15 “As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me. 16 I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this.

“Shortly before the fall of Babylon, when Daniel was meditating on these prophecies and seeking God for an understanding of the times, a series of visions was given him concerning the rise and fall of king-doms. With the first vision, as recorded in the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel, an interpretation was given; yet not all was made clear to the prophet.”—Prophets and Kings, p. 553.

b.  What was represented by the natural elements seen?

Daniel 7:2: 2 Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.

Revelation 17:15: 15 And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.

Jeremiah 25:31–33: 31 The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against the nations; he is entering into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword, declares the Lord. ’ 32 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, disaster is going forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth! 33 “And those pierced by the Lord on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall be dung on the surface of the ground.

c.  How did the angel explain the meaning of the four great beasts which arose?

Daniel 7:3, 16 (last part), 17: 3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. 16 So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things. 17 ‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth.

“The great kingdoms that have ruled the world were presented to the prophet Daniel as beasts of prey.”—The Great Controversy, pp. 439, 440.

2.  SUCCEEDING EMPIRESMon, Apr 20

a.  What was the first of the four beasts, and what empire did it represent?

Daniel 7:4: 4 The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it.

Jeremiah 50:17: 17 “Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.

Habakkuk 1:6–8: 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. 7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.

“[Babylon] did not fulfil God’s purpose; and when His time had come, this kingdom of pride and power, ruled by men of the highest intel-lect, was broken, shattered, helpless. Christ has declared, ‘Without me ye can do nothing.’ The illustrious statesmen of Babylon did not re-gard themselves as dependent on God. They thought that they had created all their grandeur and exaltation. But when God spoke, they were as the grass that withereth, and the flower of the grass that fadeth away. The word and will of God alone endure forever.”—The Youth’s Instructor, September 29, 1903.

b.  How was the second beast described, and what empire did it represent?

Daniel 7:5: And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh. ’

“Every nation that has come upon the stage of action has been per-mitted to occupy its place on the earth, that it might be seen whether it would fulfill the purpose of ‘the Watcher and the Holy One.’ Proph-ecy has traced the rise and fall of the world’s great empires—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. With each of these, as with nations of less power, history repeated itself. Each had its period of test, each failed, its glory faded, its power departed, and its place was occupied by another.

“While the nations rejected God’s principles, and in this rejection wrought their own ruin, it was still manifest that the divine, overrul-ing purpose was working through all their movements.”—Education, pp. 176, 177.

c.  What peculiar elements characterized the third beast, representing the Gre-cian empire?

Daniel 7:6: After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

“If these several kingdoms had kept the fear of the Lord always be-fore them, they would have been given wisdom and power, which would have bound them together and kept them strong. But the rulers of the kingdoms of the world made God their strength only when harassed and perplexed. . . . They were forced to appeal to those whose minds were illuminated by heavenly light, for an explanation of the mysteries they could not comprehend.”—The Youth’s Instructor, September 29, 1903.

3.  ROME, THE FOURTH EMPIRETue, Apr 21

a.  What made the fourth beast so difficult to describe in natural terms?

Daniel 7:7: After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.

“The Holy Spirit represents worldly kingdoms under the symbol of fierce beasts of prey; but Christ is ‘the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ John 1:29. In His plan of government there is no employment of brute force to compel the conscience.”—Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 77.

“The cross was associated with the power of Rome. It was the instru-ment of the most cruel and humiliating form of death. The lowest criminals were required to bear the cross to the place of execution; and often as it was about to be laid upon their shoulders, they resisted with desperate violence, until they were overpowered, and the in-strument of torture was bound upon them.”—The Desire of Ages, pp. 416, 417.

b.  What was seen among the horns of the fourth beast?

Daniel 7:8: I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

“In the sixth century the papacy had become firmly established. Its seat of power was fixed in the imperial city, and the bishop of Rome was declared to be the head over the entire church. Paganism had given place to the papacy. The dragon had given to the beast ‘his power, and his seat, and great authority.’ Revelation 13:2. And now began the 1260 years of papal oppression foretold in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation. Daniel 7:25; Revelation 13:5–7. Christians were forced to choose either to yield their integrity and accept the papal ceremonies and worship, or to wear away their lives in dun-geons or suffer death by the rack, the fagot, or the headsman’s ax. Now were fulfilled the words of Jesus: ‘Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake.’ Luke 21:16, 17. Persecution opened upon the faithful with greater fury than ever before, and the world became a vast bat-tlefield. For hundreds of years the church of Christ found refuge in se-clusion and obscurity. Thus says the prophet: ‘The woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three-score days.’ Revelation 12:6.”—The Great Controversy, pp. 54, 55.

c.  What did Daniel want to know after seeing the vision?

Daniel 7:19, 20: 19 “Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet, 20 and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions.

4.  THE LITTLE HORNWed, Apr 22

a.  What did the angel explain regarding the terrible fourth beast, representing the Roman Empire?

Daniel 7:23: “Thus he said: ‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces.

b.  What was revealed about the little horn?

Daniel 7:24: As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings.

“The vast empire of Rome crumbled to pieces, and from its ruins rose that mighty power, the Roman Catholic Church. This church boasts of her infallibility and her hereditary religion. But this religion is a hor-ror to all who are acquainted with the secrets of the mystery of iniq-uity. The priests of this church maintain their ascendency by keeping the people in ignorance of God’s will, as revealed in the Scrip-tures.”—The Youth’s Instructor, September 22, 1903.

c.  Against whom would the ire of the little horn power be directed?

Daniel 7:21, 25: 21 As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them, 25 He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

“The accession of the Roman Church to power marked the beginning of the Dark Ages. As her power increased, the darkness deepened. Faith was transferred from Christ, the true foundation, to the pope of Rome. Instead of trusting in the Son of God for forgiveness of sins and for eternal salvation, the people looked to the pope, and to the priests and prelates to whom he delegated authority. They were taught that the pope was their earthly mediator and that none could approach God except through him; and, further, that he stood in the place of God to them and was therefore to be implicitly obeyed. A deviation from his requirements was sufficient cause for the severest punish-ment to be visited upon the bodies and souls of the offenders. Thus the minds of the people were turned away from God to fallible, erring, and cruel men, nay, more, to the prince of darkness himself, who ex-ercised his power through them. Sin was disguised in a garb of sancti-ty. When the Scriptures are suppressed, and man comes to regard himself as supreme, we need look only for fraud, deception, and de-basing iniquity. With the elevation of human laws and traditions was manifest the corruption that ever results from setting aside the law of God.

“Those were days of peril for the church of Christ. The faithful stand-ard-bearers were few indeed. Though the truth was not left without witnesses, yet at times it seemed that error and superstition would wholly prevail, and true religion would be banished from the earth. The gospel was lost sight of, but the forms of religion were multiplied, and the people were burdened with rigorous exactions.”—The Great Controversy, p. 55.

5.  THE JUDGMENTThu, Apr 23

a.  What would happen to bring an end to the power of the little horn?

Daniel 7:26: But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end.

“The forty and two months [of Rev. 13:5] are the same as the ‘time and times and the dividing of time,’ three years and a half, or 1260 days, of Daniel 7—the time during which the papal power was to oppress God’s people. This period. . . began with the supremacy of the papacy, a.d. 538, and terminated in 1798. At that time the pope was made cap-tive by the French army, the papal power received its deadly wound, and the prediction was fulfilled, ‘He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.’”—The Great Controversy, p. 439.

b.  How is the sitting of the judgment described?

Daniel 7:9, 10, 13: 9 “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. 10 A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. 13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

“The coming of Christ here described is not His second coming to the earth. He comes to the Ancient of Days in heaven to receive dominion and glory and a kingdom, which will be given Him at the close of His work as a mediator.”—Ibid., p. 480.

c.  What would be the result of the judgment?

Daniel 7:11, 14, 18, 22, 26, 27: 11 “I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. 18 But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever. ’ 22 until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. 26 But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end. 27 And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. ’

“The great plan of redemption results in fully bringing back the world into God’s favor. All that was lost by sin is restored. Not only man but the earth is redeemed, to be the eternal abode of the obedient. For six thousand years Satan has struggled to maintain possession of the earth. Now God’s original purpose in its creation is accomplished. ‘The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the king-dom forever, even forever and ever.’ Daniel 7:18.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 342.

PERSONAL REVIEW QUESTIONSFri, Apr 24

1.  Describe the four beasts which Daniel saw rising out of the sea.

2.  Name the empires the beasts typified, and how their features were fulfilled.

3.  What made the little horn power different from the other powers shown?

4.  What were the “great” words of the little horn power?

5.  To whom will the judgment award rule of the earth, and when?