The Fallen Star (vs. 1, 11)
The fifth angel blows his trumpet and John sees a star. Notice the star had already fallen, describing the action in the past tense. A fallen star symbolizes authority falling from power. Notice Isaiah 14:12, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are […]

The Seventh Seal (vs. 1-6)
The seventh seal is opened and instead of hearing a voice like the other seals or seeing creatures, judgment, or horsemen, there is complete silence in heaven for about half an hour. It is the calm before the storm and is a pause before judgment is unleashed. Then the scene changes […]

The Four Angels (vs. 1-3)
In chapter 7 we read about four angels holding back the four winds at the four corners of the earth, so that no wind could blow on the earth, sea, or tree. Wind is a common symbol used by God to depict judgment. Notice Jeremiah 49:36, “Against Elam I will bring […]

There has been immense popularity in a new series of books called “Left Behind.” These books tell the story of things that the authors believe will happen at the second coming of Christ. Because of the popularity of these books, we need to determine if there is any truth to what the books speak about. […]

This text has been the subject of all sorts of speculation and wild theories about the end of time and the events that will happen at the return of Christ. Many believe in among the brethren that this text is talking about the second coming of Christ. Many believe it refers to other events. But […]

We now turn our attention to chapter 12. The beginning of this chapter is still a continuation of the words of the angel who has been speaking in chapter 11. Once again we have a poorly timed chapter break, since this is still the same discussion that was taking place in Daniel 11. Recall that […]

Chapter 10 set the introduction to the vision that Daniel would see in chapter 11. Before we read chapter 11, let us remember a couple of aspects about the vision we are going to read about. Daniel 10:14 tells us that what the angel reveals to Daniel is concerning “what will happen to your people.” […]

Chapter 10 introduces us to the coming vision of Daniel 11. Chapters 10-12 seem to fit together as one unit revealing the final prophecy and vision of Daniel. Daniel 10:1 tells us that it is now the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia . This gives us the date of about 535 B.C. Therefore […]

Daniel’s Prayer (9:1-9)
In verse 1 we read that it is the first year of Darius the Mede, the son of Ahasuerus. Therefore our time is about 539 B.C. when the Medo-Persian empire conquered the Babylonian empire (Daniel 5:31 ). Through the reading of “the books,” which we would understand to be the scriptures because of […]

The ram (8:1-4)
The next vision of Daniel occurs in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar. Therefore, this vision occurs during the days of the power of Babylon . In Daniel’s vision he sees that he is in the capital of Susa , which is over two hundred miles from Babylon . Daniel raises […]

Introduction:
The first six chapters of Daniel record the visions of Babylonian kings and the trials of those who had been taken captive. In chapters 7-12 we will now read about the visions that came to Daniel. These chapters are more difficult than the first six chapters and will require us to carefully read the images […]

Daniel made governor (1-3)
Darius the Mede is now in control of the region of Babylon . Three governors were set up to be in charge over 120 satraps within the kingdom. To each of these governors were the satraps accountable. We see that Daniel was one of the governors. Daniel excelled so much more than […]

Handwriting on the wall (1-9)
We now read that the king of Babylon is Belshazzar and so it is estimated by scholars that it has been about 23 years since the death of Nebuchadnezzar. As we will notice later in the story, Belshazzar seems to be second in charge of the kingdom, but is given power […]

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (1-18)
Chapter 4 is very unusual because it seems that Nebuchadnezzar now takes the pen and writes down the events that took place in the first person. The king of Babylon is going to describe for us the things that personally took place to him. In verse 4 the story begins that Nebuchadnezzar has […]

Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image (1-18)
Perhaps inspired by the vision he had seen, Nebuchadnezzar decides to build an image of gold. Verse 1 tells us that it was sixty cubits high and six cubits in width. In our terms of measurement, this would be an image that was 90 feet high and 9 feet wide. Thus, this […]

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (2:1-16)
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon , begins to have dreams that cause him to lose sleep. So he calls for all of his magicians and sorcerers to come before him to interpret the dream. All of the magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers tell the king to tell them the dream and they will reveal the […]

There are many similarities between the images Revelation and the prophecies of Daniel. There are probably as many different interpretations regarding the prophecies of Daniel as there are disputes over the interpretation of Revelation. We are going to read the book of Daniel and allow the prophecies to speak for themselves. This means that […]

Martin Luther said of Zechariah 14, “Here, in this chapter, I give up. For I am not sure what the prophet is talking about.â€? This chapter has been considered an enigma by many commentators. We will try to do better in interpreting this chapter. Many problems arise for commentators because of their insistence of applying […]

Cleansing from sin (13:1-6)
Once again we must consider the time markers that are given in this chapter. Notice in verses 1, 2, and 4 that we see the phrase “in that dayâ€? pointing us to the time of the days of the Messiah. The time frame of the events of chapter 12 continues to be […]

In our previous study of Zechariah, we looked into chapters 9-11 where we saw the coming of the Shepherd prophesied who would remove the false shepherds. In chapter 11 the imagery was very detailed as the shepherd takes His two staffs called Unity and Favor and breaks them. The wages are given to the Shepherd […]

Destruction of Jerusalem (11:1-3)
The first three verses of chapter 11 seem to be rather tame and of the nature that we would simply pass over these words and look for something of importance. The Jewish temple was made of cedars from Lebanon, and from this some have seen a reference here to the destruction of […]

False shepherds and the Messiah
In verse 2 we see Zechariah note that the people wander like sheep without a shepherd. Why were the people this way? The reason is that those who were to be the leaders and teachers of the people had not done their jobs. Therefore we see in verse 3, “I will […]