Decoding Prophetic Language: Stars, Beasts, and the Fall of Kingdoms

Welcome to the Kingdom Family Podcast, where

we rediscover our identity as sons and daughters

of Yahweh and learn to live the life of the Kingdom.

Let's jump in to today's episode. All right,

guys, another week on Rethinking the End Times.

This week, we're going to dive into how biblical

prophecy actually works. And again, I'm going

to preface this out of the gate with saying there's

no way that I can cover all of this and just

with the weeks that I have planned out. There

is so much stuff that you could study and read

on this and allow Holy Spirit to teach you. There's

just a lot. But my goal again here is just to

give you some information to cause you to rethink

what you believe about the end times. I'm not

here to say I'm right and everybody else is wrong

or none of that kind of stuff. But I am, my goal

is to give people a more hopeful outlook of what

the so -called end looks like. I personally believe

that Christ is in the process of restoring all

things and has indeed restored all things. That

we are simply catching up to this. So Jewish

prophecy uses a lot of imagery. We're going to

dive right into this. And some of the examples

I want to walk through, we're going to start

with stars falling, for example, in the way the

scripture reads it. Stars falling would typically

mean the fall of rulers, the fall of kings, the

fall of governing authorities, a political collapse

of a nation, or removal of leadership or authority.

Hebrew thought stars symbolized rulers or governing

powers both partly and sometimes spiritual So

let's read Genesis 37 verses 5 through 10 It

Genesis 37:5–10

says one night Joseph had a dream and when he

shared it with his brothers, they hated him even

more So already out of the gate we understand

that apparently Joseph's brothers hated him for

whatever reason And he shared with them a dream

that caused them to hate him even more He says,

listen to this dream that I had in verse six

and seven. He says, he told them, there we were,

binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly

my sheaf rose up and stood upright. Then your

sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to

mine. His brothers asked him, oh, so you think

you're going to be our king? Do you actually

think you're destined to rule over us? So the

dream that he told them about made them hate

him even more. There are some times it's okay

to be quiet. Just throw that out there for free

for you Verse 9 says that another night he had

a dream and he shared it with his brother saying

listen I had another dream so he did not learn

his lesson the first time He's still excited

that he's having dreams like this. This time

the sun and moon and 11 stars were bowing down

to me and when his father and brothers heard

it, his father this time scolded Jacob and said,

what kind of dream is that? Do you really think

that I and your mother and your brothers are

going to come and bow to the ground before you?

So already in this story, we already are beginning

to see some prophetic imagery happening. We have

the mention of the sun, the moon, and the stars.

So if you look at his dream that Jacob had, the

sun would have represented Jacob, his father.

The moon would represent Rachel, his mother.

And the stars would represent his brothers. And

we can see that. Even Jacob picks up on it because

he says, this time the sun and moon 11 stars

are bowing down to me. So his father even picked

up what the imagery was in his dream. Jacob understood

the symbolism of what his son was actually saying

regarding his dream and the prophetic representation

here. So stars clearly, especially in this story

represent people in authority and not literal

stars falling. another example that we have would

be found in Isaiah chapter 13 verses 9 and 10

Isaiah 13:9

and it says behold the day of the Lord is coming

with pitiless fury and furious anger the land

will be made desolate destroying the sinners

who inhabit it for the stars of the heavens and

their constellations will not give their light

the rising Sun will be obscured and the moon

will not shine so dr. Simmons here may as says

it may be a metaphor for false teachers excuse

me backtrack words are hard sometimes Dr. Simmons

says that stars may be a metaphor for false teachers

and constellations a metaphor for fellowships

such as networks or denominations this is another

example it's a prophecy about the fall of Babylon

not a literal cosmic collapse And we can see

that if you look at who was the prophecy about

we can go back up to verse 1 in chapter 13 of

Isaiah and it says this is the prophecy against

Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah the son of

Amos I'm gonna read that I Read that the passion

I want to read his footnote regarding this Pull

it up here for us. It says that that this verse

begins a new section of Isaiah that contains

10 prophecies against 10 nations. Babylon means

confusion and points to the political and religious

confusion and disorder among the nations. I think

today that we can still see Babylon in full operation.

Political and religious confusion causing disorder

among the nations. This prophecy against Babylon

was spoken by Isaiah at least 174 years before

Babylon fell in 536 BC. The Greek historian Herodotus

described the city of Babylon as 15 miles wide

on each side with walls that were more than 85

feet thick, good day, and 350 feet high. It had

100 gates to the city and was the commercial

center of the ancient Near East. In the book

of Revelation, Babylon becomes a metaphor for

the world's political and religious system. Again,

a lot of imagery happening. It's not, we can't

just sit here and take this stuff literal. We

have to take this stuff, in my opinion, we have

to take this stuff to Holy Spirit and allow Holy

Spirit to adjust our lens and begin to teach

us what this stuff actually meant when it was

written down and pinned down and who was it being

written to? What would they have understood this

stuff to be? What would early church fathers

have understood? these verses to mean? How would

they have taken this in? All of that to me I

believe plays an important role of how we should

interpret it still today. It's like if you think

about in 2026 and I'm 36 years old so I may have

some of this wrong but if you think about the

term that's so sick you know when I was growing

up if you said something about that so sick that

means someone's not feeling well but today's

world that's so sick would mean that that's a

really cool thing a really great idea. So if

someone in 2026 would write down that this is

so sick, they may not be meaning that someone

is deathly ill or something. They may be saying

this is a really good job. So it's important

for us to understand how the people then would

have understood this and take it from there.

And not saying, again, I believe wholeheartedly

that the Word is alive and active and when you're

reading this thing with the Holy Spirit, the

Holy Spirit can pull out so many different types

of meanings depending on where you're at in life.

If you take a grandfather at the age of 70 right

now, me and him can read the same verse and Holy

Spirit may teach him something completely different.

Why? Because we're at different stages in our

life. If you take me and put me with a female

nurse, for example, the female nurse and I can

read the same scripture and we may get something

completely different. Number one, I'm not a nurse.

Number two, I'm not a female. So that would be

two objects right there. they may understand

and see something completely different than what

I'm seeing. Does that make either one of us wrong?

No, it's just this is my journey that I'm making.

This is their journey that they're making. So

we have to understand and allow the Holy Spirit

to be our guide, to be our teacher, to illuminate

revelation to us and through us. I hope that

makes sense. So what we are reading it is is

announcing an Isaiah at least is announcing the

coming fall of Babylon Which again was historically

fulfilled when Babylon fell in 539 BC and you

can find that in Isaiah Chapter 13 verse 17 Get

Isaiah 13:17

some of my notes back up here. Okay So we have

Babylon ruled the region the Medes and the Persians

conquered Babylon and this happened exactly as

it was prophesied. So what are we doing here?

We're putting prophetic imagery back in its place.

This is about the fall of Babylon and not some

kind of cosmic annihilation. So again Isaiah

is saying Babylon's ruler and their power structure

will collapse not that the universe will be shut

down. And you can find this same type of imagery

happening in other places. And this is stuff

that I'm gonna just challenge you to pause, write

this down. You go read on your own time. Excuse

me. Ezekiel chapter 32, verses seven and eight

Ezekiel 32 · chapter mention

talks about the fall of Egypt. Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 34 · chapter mention

34, verse four is judgment on Edom. So you can

go and read these scriptures and see the imagery

that's being used in these verses. Another note

when it says the day of the Lord in verse nine

in Isaiah. Some assume that that means the end

of the world, but in Scripture it often means

God is judging a nation. This is where we have

to understand judgment once again. Where is the

Father's judgment aimed? I can promise you, judgment

is never aimed at you nor I. Judgment, if you

want to know what a judge is, turn off Judge

Judy because that's not what Scripture is talking

about. Go and get your Bible and read the book

of Judges it shows you what a judge is in that

time and what was a judge in the Old Testament

a judge would so anytime Isaiah Had something

come against them God would raise up a judge

that would come against whatever was interfering

between the God and Israel so Israel would God

would kept send up a judge and destroy whatever

was coming against Israel and then Israel would

fall again. What would God do? Raise up another

judge and come and deal with whatever's coming

against between him and Israel. So the way I

understand this, and I have to give credit where

credit is due to Damon Thompson for this, but

if you want to know what judgment is, judgment

is aimed at whatever in your life is interfering

between you and the love of the Father. I'll

give you a perfect example on, this is how I

understood his wrath. I have a little over one

year old son, about 15 months I think right now.

And it was probably before he turned one actually.

I had him sitting in one of those Bumbo seats

and he was sitting on our counter. while I was

washing dishes and I had failed to remember that

in this moment he had learned to take his feet

and kick and do all this other stuff. So when

I had turned around to wash dishes somehow he

had gotten back to the edge and leaned over and

toppled into the floor. Of course, I began to

freak out. My wife is in the living room on the

phone. She hears the commotion. She's come running.

My son is face down on the floor after toppling

off the counter. And when we turn him over, his

lips are blue. He's not breathing, but he's got

the crying face. Of course, the bumbo seat is

on top of him. It was a huge mess. We ended up,

we finally got him to breathe. I had to blow

on his face and get him to start breathing again.

We called 911, had the paramedics come check

him out. And of course they... tell us that a

crying baby is a good thing because that's what

means that he's able to breathe and stuff at

least. Even though as a parent, you're thinking,

please stop crying. It was a terrifying experience.

We kind of asked their opinion. Do we rush him

to the emergency room? What do we do? And they,

of course, told us, of course, there's nothing

they can see. He seems to be fine other than.

he'll have a bruise or I think he had a black

eye or something. But they said we can't see

if there's anything going on inside. Is there

an issue inside? So they recommended at least

take him, let him get scanned to make sure there's

nothing broken, no issues internally. So that's

of course what we did. So my wife rides with

him on the ambulance. I have to compose myself

and grab my, I might be a big boy, but as a dad

that begins. That was that was hard. Let me just

say that and so I grabbed my two daughters and

we drive behind To go to the hospital But here's

the thing when we get into the emergency room

me and my daughters are sitting there and I'm

waiting for updates I've texted my wife not heard

anything. So there's part of me freaking out

but then all of a sudden where the emergency

room is there's Glass and doors and then on the

other side of that supposedly is where they would

Bring in the the patients that's coming off the

ambulance and all of a sudden I heard my kid

Crying like loud on the other side and I knew

as a parent, you know, your child's cries I knew

that was my son and in that moment Something

rose up in me and I wanted to bust through every

door till i could find my son and when i had

that moment immediately the holy spirit spoke

to my spirit he said son he said now you understand

my wrath the wrath was not aimed at my son it

was aimed at what was interfering between me

and my son um and if i had had the ability to

do so i would have took down the doors or whatever

and got to him now would that have been wise

because i may be spending some time in jail uh

no that was not I would not be wise so I sat

there waited for people to respond my wife finally

texted me back a nurse came out and said he was

just fine back there they was doing the couple

scans or whatever everything turned out great

just a scary moment as a parent but I understood

through that experience the father taught me

what his wrath looked like So again, we have

to understand like his judgment, his wrath. Listen,

God is love. It is all love and it's all grace.

That's it. His wrath is not the evil part of

him, the dark side of him, the bad part of him.

He doesn't have a bad side. He doesn't have a

dark side. There is no trace of darkness in him.

So understand that. Often the day of the Lord

means the collapse of a kingdom under divine

judgment. And this is important to understand

because Jesus uses this imagery in Matthew chapter

Matthew 24:29

24 verse 29. And he says, then immediately this

is what will take place. The sun will be darkened

and the moon will give no light. The stars will

fall from the sky and all the cosmic powers will

be shaken. So let me read to you again, Dr. Simmons'

footnote on this. It says, this can also be viewed

as a Hebraic metaphor of the lights of the natural

realm being shut off and replaced with heaven's

glory. Lights out on the old order, the sun,

moon, and stars are also representation of the

governmental structures failing with great calamity.

A new order, a new glory is coming to replace

the fading glories of this world. So again, we

have a lot of imagery being spoken even through

Jesus. And Jesus would have understood when he's

using phrases like this, he knows what the people

listening would have understood. Then we have

Isaiah 13. It shows us cosmic language equals

a political collapse imagery. It's not a literal

astronomical destruction. So when you understand

stuff like this, this insight alone unlocks stuff

in Isaiah, it unlocks stuff in Ezekiel, in Joel,

in Revelation, in some of the words that Jesus

speaks about. It's one of the most important

prophetic interpretation keys is understanding

what these symbolism would have meant to the

people that they're talking to. Think about this,

Isaiah did not predict the sun going down. Isaiah

predicted Babylon going down. The darkened sun,

the moon, and stars were not about astronomy.

They were symbolism and they meant Babylon's

rulers would fall, its powers would collapse,

its kingdom would end, and historically that's

exactly what happened. So it's important to understand

this. So if the sun going dark and Isaiah meant

Babylon fail Then why do we assume it suddenly

means the universe ends when Jesus uses the same

language? Again, don't check your brain at the

door. So let's look at look at some other stuff

here Let's look at Daniel chapter 8 and we're

Daniel 8 · chapter mention

going to read verses 8 and 10 It says, then the

goat grew exceedingly arrogant. At the very peak

of his power, his big horn abruptly snapped off.

In its place, four prominent horns came up, each

pointing to a different direction. From one of

them, a small horn emerged. It eventually grew

to be very big, and its power extended toward

the south, the easy and toward the beautiful

land. It grew so powerful that it attacked the

armies of heaven and hurled some of the starry

hosts to the ground and trampled them down. Again,

we have a lot of imagery happening here. This

is what I found while studying. Essentially,

these verses refer to persecution and overthrow

of leaders and priests. Why is that important?

Because... Revelation speaks of the same type

of stuff. Revelation speaks of stars falling.

And that typically signals, yet again, collapse

of ruling systems, removal of leadership, and

judgment on governing authority, not literal

astronomy disasters. If you think about mountains

melting, for example. This would typically mean

the collapse of kingdoms or the collapse of empires,

the fall of powerful political systems, God overthrowing

nations of governments. And I want you to think,

why mountains? Because they symbolize kingdoms,

nations, or centers of powers. Think about Jerusalem

itself being called Mount Zion, which is the

kingdom of God's rule. So mountains melting means

kingdoms dissolving and not geology melting.

Michael 1 2 says the 1 2 through 4 says listen

you people all of you earth pay attention and

everyone on it from his holy temple the Lord

Yahweh himself will testify against you for behold

Yahweh is leaving his dwelling place here he

comes to tread upon the high places of the land

mountains melt beneath his feet like wax melting

near a raging fire and again don't take this

literal like water pouring down a steep slope.

This prophecy refers to judgment on Samaria and

Jerusalem, which historically happens. So again,

this is not literal mountains liquefying and

becoming what we read about and make it literal.

Mountains equals kingdoms. This stuff is important

when we really begin to look at it and understand

it. Isaiah 34 1 through 3, I'm not going to read

it, but it talks about mountains will stream

with their blood. What is that? What's the context?

Is the judgment on Edom a nation? It's not literal.

Again, it's not a literal mountain melting. So

again, why is this important? Why do I need to

understand what Micah says and what Daniel says

and what Isaiah says and all this, that and the

other? Because when you understand that imagery,

it helps us understand that when Revelation talks

about this, it's not talking about geographical

areas melting. When mountains shake or melt,

kingdom systems collapse, political or covenantal

powers fall, and major shifts in national structures.

And then we look at beast rising. Typical meaning

would mean empires or kingdoms political systems,

oppressive ruling powers, not a literal beast.

We can look at Daniel chapter seven verse three.

Let me pull that up. Give me just a minute. I

do not have some of this stuff marked. Daniel

chapter seven verse three says, then emerging

from the tossing sea came four immense beasts,

each different from the others. Dr. Simmons,

again, I'm reading the footnote he has, says

Daniel's vision is impressive overview of human

history. God has a plan for the world. History

is his story. Many scholars view the four beasts

are representing empires and not people. The

Babylonian, which is the winged lion, the Medo

-Persian, which is the bear, the Greek, which

is the tiger, and the Roman, which is the apocalyptic

beast. Daniel's vision was an overview of nearly

1 ,000 years of the future. Only God's supernatural

knowledge could make this known to Daniel. And

then we have Daniel chapter seven, verse 17,

and it says, these four great beasts, so this

is the answer to the question, these four great

beasts represent four empires that will rise

to power over the earth. So what he said in verse

3 he explains in verse 17 what he's saying This

is the Bible interpreting itself these equals

kingdoms not monsters It's not some big beast

that we see in a movie. This is this is empires

Again, there's no different dr. Simmons the four

beasts represented Babylon me to Mediopurgia,

Greece, Rome. Each empire symbolized a beast.

Now here's something else interesting I did not

know until studying some of this. We have a sea

imagery. Why beasts come from the sea? So sea

imagery would equal chaos in Gentile nations

and Jewish thought land was Israel and sea was

Gentile world with chaos or unstable nations

So a beast rising from the sea means a Gentile

Empire emerging into power Again, why important?

I'm gonna do this a lot Because the beast of

Revelation 13 follows Daniel's pattern. That's

how many scholars especially pre -modern ones

identify the beast as wrong Not a future monster

not something in 2026 that we're trying to figure

out what the beast is. It's not a literal creature

It's a political empire persecuting believers

This fits the first century Roman context and

we'll get into some of that later again These

often represent political upheaval and not cosmic

collapse So why does this matter for in time

stuff? This is one of the biggest interpretive

keys the Jewish prophecy uses Is covenantial

cosmic language not modern sci -fi disaster language.

So again, let's let's run through some of this

Stars falling would mean leaders or rulers falling

Mountains that are melting as kingdoms collapsing.

Beasts rising would equal empires or political

powers. The sun darken would mean national judgment.

Sea raging is gentile chaos or nations. Fire

would typically equal judgment or purification.

So I hope some of that makes sense there. Let's

see. I got some other notes here. I want to see

if I want to go through this. Yeah, let's, let's

read, let's read song 46. One through six is

gone. You're such a safe and powerful place to

find refuge is encouraging. You are proven help

in time of trouble more than enough and always

available whenever I need you. So we will never

fear even if every structure or support were

to crumble away. We will not fear even when the

earthquakes and shakes moving mountains and casting

them into the sea. For the raging roar of stormy

winds and crashing waves cannot erode our faith

in you, Paul's in his presence. God has a constantly

flowing river whose sparkling streams bring joy

and delight to his people his river flows right

through the city of god high into his holy dwelling

dwelling places god is in the midst of the city

secure and never shaken at daybreak his help

will be seen with the appearance of dawn so again

just an important thing to understand what these

things symbolize and what they mean Let's do

one more sign. We want to address this again

later, but I think it's important and we'll end

on this one, I do believe. This will be a shorter

one, but I just wanted to help you understand

the imagery and the symbolism that it's not,

don't take it literal. Don't shake your brain

at the door. Again, let me help with some of

that. If you look at Matthew chapter 24 verse

Matthew 24:34

34, we're going to hit this verse again in a

couple other ones. But it says, I assure you

the end of the age will not come until all I

have spoken comes to pass. We look at this term,

the end of the age, as the end of the age, end

of the world. That's what we think about. But

in that time, in that day, they would have understood

what that meant. And if you look at the Greek

in the word age, it actually means this generation,

this present generation. 30 to 40 years roughly

will not come Until all I have spoke spoken comes

to pass and guess what my friend when we look

at what happened in 70 ad You understand that

it did happen the way Jesus prophesied that it

would I'm just giving through some of my notes.

We make sure I didn't miss anything We're gonna

address that later i just want to make sure very

quickly oh there we go so while i read psalm

46 i knew i had that in my slideshow but i did

not have it in my notes i do have it in my notes

psalm 46 1 through 6 when i read that it talked

about the mountains shaking that literally meant

the kingdoms shaking not the literal mountains

shaking but kingdoms that are shaking so again

If you're taking notes, I'm going to help you

one more time. I'm going to run through these.

If you look at stars falling, it's leaders or

rulers that are falling, not literal stars. Mountains

melting as kingdoms collapsing. Beasts that are

rising as an empire's or political powers. The

sun being darkened is usually national judgment.

The sea that's raging usually talks about Gentile

chaos or nations. And then if you think about

fire and the importance of fire, it's judgment

or purification. Think about this when you think

about fire. Jesus says that, or not Jesus, it

was John that said it about Jesus. He said, and

I baptize you with water, but there's one coming

after me that's gonna baptize you with the Holy

Spirit and with. Fire. If fire was a negative

thing, then he would not be baptizing you in

it. But what does fire do if he's baptizing you?

It's purifying you. It's burning things out of

you that do not resemble the image of Christ

within you. So again, it's so important that

we understand a lot of this imagery and where

it comes from, what it means. There's just a

lot of things to think about and not take stuff

so literal. There's not a literal beast coming.

A couple other things I'll mention, if you look

at some prophetic meanings, the stars being darkened,

rulers or leaders falling, moon that's darkened

is national collapse, sun darkened typically

means authority that's removed, and heaven shaken

usually means political world overturned. So

again, is that the only meanings these things

can have? I'm sure... I'm sure it's not. I'm

sure you could go and find other meanings. But

here's the thing, whatever you're reading or

listening to or understanding about the, quote

unquote, the end, if it's causing fear and anxiety

in you, it's likely not from God. Think about

that. So allow the Holy Spirit to judge whatever

is in you that becomes anxious and fearful about

the end, quote unquote. So again, I'm not saying

I have all this right and man, there's a ton

of ways you can go into this and look at the

imagery and different things like that that would

take me much longer than, I mean, I have all

the time I guess I can take, but it would just

take a lot longer to run through some of this.

And my biggest goal in the next several weeks

that we run through this topic of rethinking

the end times. My biggest goal is just to give

people a more hopeful approach about life. Remember

that you've been given Zoe, the god life. When

you remember that and understand that and begin

to understand that the kingdom of God is within

you, that Christ is within you, just like there

are previous discussions on the Christ in all

of relation. Christ is within you. But the Romans

8 tells us the earth is growing and traveling

for the manifestation of the sons and daughters

of Yahweh Earth is waiting creation is waiting

on you and I to discover that who we are in Christ

that we are indeed little Christ Man, that's

good news So when you begin to understand all

this imagery and the symbolic stuff the symbolic

language The prophetic language when you begin

to understand and tap into that you begin to

see things differently Especially pertaining

to the book of Revelation that everybody is so

afraid of So again take this Listen to it multiple

times go and do your own reading and studying

and you know dive it into some of this Don't

just take Not even my word, don't just take my

word for it. Go and do your own research and

pray and ask Holy Spirit, reveal truth to me.

And this is what it is. If you land somewhere

different than what I do, that is totally fine.

I'm not sitting here telling you I have all the

correct answers and that I can't be wrong on

any of this, because my friend, I can be. But

I will say this has given me a more hope -filled...

Perspective on life and understanding that and

you won't argue me down on this that Christ came

to restore it all So just think about this. I

Hope this is blessing you. Let me see it. We're

doing Next week. We're gonna jump. Okay, so next

week. We're gonna actually begin talking about

Jesus' prophecy and the fall of Jerusalem. That

may take us a couple weeks to run through, but

we're going to be specifically talking about

what happened in 70 AD and which solidifies my

stance on there is no rapture coming. Again,

am I right? I, in my opinion, I believe I am.

Can I be wrong? Certainly. So anyhow, I hope

this has helped you. Be blessed. Enjoy life.

Enjoy the kingdom. Tap into the God life that

you have been given And understand that as he

is so are you my friend be blessed Thanks for

spending some time with me today on the kingdom

family podcast This episode spoke to you take

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