Shammah Temple Fellowship, Ngagara Parish
Sermon of November 12, 2023
By Pastor Egide Nibitanga
Reference scriptures: Daniel 7:1-28 & Daniel 2:31-44
Theme: Our God, the master of times and circumstances.
There’s a game called “weigher game” in which people are given parts of a whole idea and asked to put them all together to make that final unified object. Similarly, our God has the whole idea of each designated part and perfect picture of our whole being, all the circumstances but we may not see the whole picture as God does. Let’s believe in Him who knows and cares about us.
Daniel was confused as the king who brought them in the country was no longer in power. God used this dream to tell him that He will exactly make it the way He had designed it, especially because He understood the whole idea.
The dream showed him a lion with wings of an eagle – the king of the jungle and the king of the skies in one single person. Its head was golden but it was destroyed. The second beast was a bear, it was so strong – an empire put together after unifying two kingdoms – that of Persians and that of Medes that ruled over most of the world.
There was also the third beast – in an image of leopard, with four wings, four heads, and the authority to reign – the Greek empire ruled by Alexander the Great. He conquered so many countries from Egypt to the gate of China, just in a very short time. However, he died and the empire was split up into 4 different kingdoms.
The fourth beast also appeared terrifying and frightening, very powerful. This is the Roman empire. As Daniel grew more confused about what he was seeing, the angle of God came and explained him everything (from 7:20).
So, what can we learn from this revelation?
1. Our God is the master of times
God showed him things that would happen in 3000 years, which also corroborated what John saw, with a difference of 8 centuries between Daniel and John in the revelation. God knows every bit of you even before you were conceived in your mother’s womb.
While Daniel was confused just about what had to happen after the reign of his king, God showed him what would happen not only in his time but up to the Christ reign – thousands and thousands of years after that.
Because we believe in a God who masters time, we should relax – our God is in control of what happens to us over time.
2. In all that exist in this world, nothing will last forever.
Nebuchadnezzar was so strong but his kingdom ended one day. The first beast, second, third, fourth, no matter how powerful and influential they were, one – just one day – they disappeared. No matter how difficult the mountains you are climbing are, they will one day be cleared before you and you will rejoice. Even death will not last forever.
As Believers, we should not live in fear. We should always trust our God who rules over nations, whose kingdom is always above all the other temporal thrones.
3. In the end of all things, Believers will be in Christ’s throne
Our journey will know an end at some point. No matter how frightening some episodes may look like, what is sure is that God’s kingdom is coming and we shall rejoice and jubilate in it. We know who we believe in and that one is beyond all the threats against us in our journey to the eternal kingdom.
If Daniel got the revelation of the rule of Romans and that of Greeks hundreds of years before it actually happened, the kingdom of Jesus and his bride will also come to its day and the way he saw it. Let’s always believe in our great God, the God that is above all nations, and that who prepared us for His eternal kingdom.
