Click below to download the Cornerstone Connections leader’s guide and student lesson. This week’s resources also include two lesson plans and a discussion starter video which offer different ways of looking at the topic. Each lesson plan includes opening activities, scripture passages, discussion questions, and real-life applications.
Royalty and Ruin (Prophets and Kings)
Chapter 45 - Cyrus Sets the Exiles Free
To remain faithful to God in spite of dire consequences doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time—and prayer.
SCRIPTURE PASSAGES
Daniel 7:1-28
Genesis 28:10-17
Genesis 37:5-10
Judges 7:3-16
1 Kings 3:1-28
Matthew 1:20-21
Acts 2:17
Jeremiah 29:11
Revelation 22:1-6
OVERVIEW
Have you ever noticed that the Bible isn’t rated “G”? It’s full of wars, broken relationships, murder, adultery, and mystical creatures. Today’s lesson is a prime example—terrifying beasts that take over the world. It seems out of control, except that God is showing Daniel what is going to happen in the future, so that when it happens people won’t be caught unaware. God never leaves His people without hope and a plan.
OPENING ACTIVITY: HOUSEHOLD SCAVENGER HUNT
How often do you walk past things of significance without noticing them? Today’s activity focuses on finding God in everyday items. When the majority of the class is assembled (maybe still electronically), explain that every day they walk past items that God has provided for them. Give them 3 minutes to go throughout their house and collect three things that remind them of how God provides for them and bring them back for the group to see. Items should come from the following places: kitchen, bedroom, and family room.
QUESTIONS
TRANSITION
Hopefully you have stopped to think about all the ways God communicates with us. He uses scripture, nature, pastors, teachers, friends, prayer, and many other ways to inspire us and help us navigate the uncertainties of life. We’ve been looking into the book of Daniel which is all about dreams and God communicating with people to explain what is about to happen. In today’s lesson, you will see that God’s methods of communication are still working today.
BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
To start today’s lesson, you are going to look at several examples of how God communicated with His people through dreams.
Read Genesis 28:10-17.
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
QUESTIONS
Read Genesis 37:5-10.
5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”
QUESTIONS
Read Judges 7:13-16.
3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.
Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. 9 During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. 10 If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah 11 and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. 12 The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.
13 Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”
14 His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”
15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.” 16 Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.
QUESTIONS
Read 1 Kings 3:4-9.
4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
QUESTIONS
Read Matthew 1:20-21.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
QUESTIONS
Read Acts 2:17.
17 “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
QUESTIONS
These passages have shown us that one of the ways God communicates with us is through dreams. In dreams, God has shown us the future, the promise of His desire to never leave us, the coming of the Messiah, how kingdoms will rise and fall, and much more. These examples remind us that even though we can’t see Him, God still wants to be part of our lives, which brings us to this week’s passage in Daniel 7.
Read Daniel 7:1-8.
1In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.
2 Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. 3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.
4 “The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it.
5 “And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’
6 “After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.
7 “After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.
8 “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully.
QUESTIONS
Read Daniel 7:15-28.
15 “I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. 16 I approached one of those standing there and asked him the meaning of all this. “So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 17 ‘The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. 18 But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever.’
This passage can be difficult to understand. Here is a visual representation of the beasts of Daniel. This is the traditional view of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Chapter |
Parallel sequence of prophetic elements as understood by Historicists[1][2] |
|||||
Past |
Present |
Future |
||||
Head |
Chest & |
Belly and thighs |
2 Legs |
2 Feet with toes |
Rock |
|
Winged Lion |
Lopsided Bear |
4 Headed / |
Iron toothed beast |
Judgment scene |
A son of man comes in clouds |
|
2-horned Ram |
Uni-/4-horned Goat |
Little Horn |
Cleansing of Sanctuary |
(Kingdom of God) |
||
|
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seventh-day_Adventist_eschatology | ||||||
QUESTIONS
APPLICATION
The Bible is clear that God wants to communicate with His people. Some think that God only communicated with His people in the past. As you saw in Acts 2, God still communicates with His people and will continue to do so until the end of time. In troubling times, God has never abandoned His people or stopped giving them hope for the future. Today is no different. God is still communicating with you and wants to make sure that you know that He has your best interest in mind. It’s true that things won’t always be smooth, or you may not be able to go about life like you have in the past, but know this—God has got the future!
FOLLOW UP
Here are a couple of passages that you may want to consider as you contemplate God’s response to you.
SCRIPTURE PASSAGES
Daniel 7:1-28
Revelation 11:18
Daniel 12:4
LEADER’S NOTE
For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.
You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.
Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.
Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.
OVERVIEW
The first six chapters of Daniel present a series of inspiring stories. As we move to the second half of the book, the content has similarities and differences.
From this point forward, all the visions will be given to Daniel. Notice that in Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzar received the dream, as he did in chapter 4. Daniel provided the interpretations of those dreams.
In Daniel 5, it was Daniel who was able to read and decipher the writing on the wall during King Belshazzar’s drunken party.
Daniel 6 highlighted Daniel’s faithfulness in prayer, and we’ll have one of Daniel’s famous prayers in next week’s lesson. For Daniel 7, we have somewhat of a repeat of the vision of Daniel 2, but with some differences. And Daniel receives part of the interpretation, but not the whole interpretation. That leaves us wondering, guessing, studying, and praying for God to instruct us about the message he sent to Daniel, as recorded in chapter 7.
This Relational Bible Study seeks to have participants apply the Scripture to their lives right now. Instead of looking for a historical timeline that names various players in world history or primarily Western Civilization, we will keep returning to how we can live out the principles and teachings from Scripture in our everyday lives. We will wrestle with what God wants us to do with our heart and hands, and not just our head as we look at this passage of Scripture.
Beasts That Go Kaput
What’s an animal that frightens you?
Read Daniel 7:1-28.
1In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.
2 Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. 3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.
4 “The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it.
5 “And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’
6 “After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.
7 “After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.
8 “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully.
9 “As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. 10 A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.
11 “Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. 12 (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)
13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
The Interpretation of the Dream
15 “I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. 16 I approached one of those standing there and asked him the meaning of all this.
“So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 17 ‘The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. 18 But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever.’
19 “Then I wanted to know the meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws—the beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. 20 I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell—the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. 21 As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
23 “He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. 24 The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. 25 He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.
26 “ ‘But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.’
28 “This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself.”
1. What makes Daniel’s dream recorded here different from the previous ones?
2. What did you notice about the first three beasts in the vision?
3. What captures your attention about the fourth beast?
4. Who do you think is the “Ancient of Days” (vs. 9, 13, 22)?
5. Who or what is the Ancient of Days judging?
6. Who or what is the fourth beast and the little horn that became big?
7. Who’s in control of this world—God or beasts? How do you know?
8. Did Daniel’s dream already play out, or is it continuing to play out (see Daniel 12:4)?
SUMMARY
Beasts usually scare and intimidate. But each of these beasts lasted only a short while. Even the most ferocious one, the fourth beast, seemed overcome by one of its horns that fought against other horns on the head of this beast. It’s not surprising that those who fight against others often experience fighting within as well. But all of these beasts go kaput and get judged by the Ancient of Days (God). The message comes through that powers and kingdoms that seem so strong, in actuality, last only for a relatively short time. And then they go kaput.
Another key finding in this chapter is that God judges in favor of His people. It seems as if they often get the short end of the stick. Things aren’t fair at all. The promise in Daniel 7 is that God will set it straight one day. Do you believe that? Will it enable you to remain faithful to God when it seems as if a beast is in control? We can see that the previous beasts have all gone kaput. We have good reasons to trust that what God showed Daniel in chapter 7 is the way things will play out on this planet.
APPLICATION
The big conflict between good and evil, between Christ and Satan, sometimes called “The Great Controversy,” continues on our planet, in our communities, and even in our own lives. Consider your current world, and how it is playing out there. Pick one of the following activities to help you apply this lesson to your own life, or create your own.
