The book of Daniel is mainly considered as a
prophetic book which speaks about the last days.
Daniel’s interpretation of the king
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2 and Daniel’s visions in chapters 7 belong
to a genre of prophecy termed "apocalyptic."
The word comes from the Greek apokalypsis,
which means "revelation, making fully known, take the cover off,"
The Book of Daniel is one of the earliest
apocalypses.
It was followed by many other Jewish apocalyptic
literature written between 200 BC and 100 AD.
The Book of Revelation is another good example for
apocalyptic writing.
Apocalyptic literature is full of symbols that are
seen in dreams and visions.
The symbols are designed to communicate not just
facts, but also emotional feelings.
Images in apocalyptic literature speak truly and
accurately, but not precisely; we often do not know where the analogy stops.
Every detail of the vision or dream may not have
significant meaning.
So it is important not to over-interpret these
apocalyptic images and make everything “fit”.
Another characteristic of apocalyptic writings is
a deterministic view - that history must run its course, but the end is
predetermined by God.
The end of history will be a violent in-breaking by
God to establish his kingdom.
Other examples of apocalyptic literature in the
Old Testament include Zechariah and parts of Ezekiel.
Introduction to Chapter 7
From chapter 1 to 6 we have been reading primarily
"court stories" about Daniel and his friends.
The stories describe their quest to be faithful to
God while serving in the court of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors.
In Chapter 7 we shift to a series of visions that
Daniel has seen.
In the first six chapters we have seen that God is
in control of the evil forces of the day.
In the final chapters we see visions of the
ultimate liberation of God's people by God who is in control of all history.
The accounts of God being with Daniel in the
earlier chapters establish his credentials to prophecy the future.
Many believe that Daniel 7 is the most important
chapter in the Book of Daniel.
The chapter provides the most comprehensive and
detailed prophecy of future events.
It prophesies the direction of four major empires,
and the establishment of the everlasting Kingdom of God.
The prophet
records a night vision that God gave him concerning four world empires,
symbolized as four beasts (Daniel 7:1–14).
He saw the vision
of beasts in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar, probably in 553 bc.
Belshazzar was the eldest son of Nabonidus and
Nitocris, who was perhaps a daughter of
Nebuchadnezzar. Nabonidus was the last king of Babylon.
Belshazzar actually served as the regent
for his father during the latter's prolonged absence from the city.
But he never assumed the titles or ritual
functions of kingship.
He may have been killed when Babylon fell to the
Persians in 539 BCE.
Daniel saw the
vision during the regency of Belshazzar.
Daniel saw the
"great sea" stirred up by the "four winds of heaven," and
from the waters emerged four beasts.
The first a lion
with the wings of an eagle, the second a bear, the third a winged leopard with
four heads, and the fourth was a beast with ten horns.
And one more horn appeared
on the head of the fourth beast which uprooted three of the ten.
As Daniel watches,
the Ancient
of Days took His seat on the throne
of heaven and sat in judgment in the midst of the heavenly court.
Then the fourth and
worst beast was judged and put to death.
And Daniel saw the
Son of Man approaching the Ancient One in the clouds of heaven and He was given
everlasting kingship.
The second chapter of the Book
of Daniel tells about the dream of Nebuchadnezzar and
how Daniel interpreted it.
God gave
Nebuchadnezzar a dream about what kingdoms would arise after his Babylonian
empire.
It was a dream of a great statue with a head of gold, arms and chest of
silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of mingled iron and
clay.
A great stone, not
cut by human hands, fell on the feet of the statue and destroyed it, and the rock
became a mountain that filled the whole world.
This was the dream.
After narrating it, Daniel goes on to interpret it for the King.
The dream is about four successive kingdoms, beginning with
Nebuchadnezzar.
The fourth kingdom will be replaced by the everlasting kingdom of God.
God shows Daniel the identity of the first and
last empires. The first is Babylon and the last is the Kingdom of God.
The traditional
interpretation of the four kingdoms, shared among Jewish and Christian
expositors identifies the kingdoms as the empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.
To
know more about the dream and interpretation, please watch my video
“Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream” in my video channel naphtalitribetv.com
Many scholars have
contrasted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel
2 with Daniel’s vision in chapter
7.
Both passages
reveal the coming world kingdoms, but the symbolism is strikingly different in
each.
The pagan king
sees the kingdoms of this world as a towering work of art, impressive in size,
value, and grandeur, except for the feet of clay.
God’s prophet sees
the same kingdoms as bizarre, unnatural beasts, terrifying in aspect and
behavior.
In
Daniel 2, these kingdoms were revealed to an unbeliever, King Nebuchadnezzar.
The
form of the image of Gold, silver, brass, iron and clay is a man’s perspective.
In
Daniel 7, God revealed the same kingdoms to a believer, in form of beasts which
is God’s perspective of these governments.
It’s a difference of
perspective: where man sees a stately, glittering tribute to himself, God sees
a menagerie of aberrations.
The two sets of dreams and
visions were about 50 years apart; but as we will see, they both describe four
world empires.
The vision of the four beasts
and the little horn found in Daniel 7 reveals more about the same four empires
that are first described in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a great image.
The Great Sea
(7: 2)
Daniel’s vision
of the four beasts begins with a windy night and a troubled sea:
Daniel 7:2 Daniel spoke, saying, "I saw in my vision by night,
and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea.” (NKJV)
Daniel begins to tell his vision of beasts that arise from a
turbulent sea.
For the Hebrews, the sea was a
place of chaos, evil, and danger.
The image of beasts coming out
of the sea may be perceived as kingdoms arising from dangerous evil.
The Four
Beasts (7: 3- 8)
As Daniel
watches, “four great beasts,” each different from the others, emerge from the
dark waters.
A heavenly being
explains the vision that the four beasts are four earthly kings or kingdoms.
The beasts are the
succession of world power from one kingdom to another.
And some day God
will destroy the last human government and establish His eternal kingdom.
The vision predicts
major world empires and events from the time of Daniel to the second coming of
Christ.
Daniel
saw these kingdoms as wild beasts that came out of the sea and devour
other nations.
His vision about the
future of the worldly kingdoms centers on these four beasts: a winged lion, a
bear, a winged leopard, and a dreadful and terrible beast.
They
represented four kingdoms dominated the course of events in the Near East
during their rule.
Although
none of these kingdoms controlled every part of the world, their ideas have
greatly influenced civilization ever since.
This
is particularly true of Greece and Rome, whose cultures and ideas have shaped
much of the governmental, educational, social and religious thinking and
practices of the Western world.
The kingdoms of the world are referred to as
beasts because those kingdoms are cruel as wild beasts. They are vicious and
ruthless.
Daniel’s
vision assures us that the world’s empires have a certain amount of authority
for a certain length of time, but they will all pass away.
'But
the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom
forever, even forever and ever.' (Daniel 7: 18 - NKJV)
The Lion with Wings of an Eagle - Babylon
Now let us concentrate our
attention to the study of the beasts in the vision.
Daniel 7: 4 "The first was like a lion,
and had eagle's wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was
lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man's
heart was given to it. (NKJV)
The first kingdom is represented by a lion that has
the wings of an eagle.
A lion was a dangerous beast that lived throughout
the ancient Near East.
The Old Testament prophets called Babylon a lion.
A lion with eagle’s wings was a prominent symbol
on Babylonian coins and on Babylon’s walls.
Decorations with the image of yellow lions was
popular in Babylon.
They were found on the blue glazed bricks on the
famous Ishtar Gate and the Processional Street leading to it.
The Ishtar
Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon.
It was constructed
in about 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on
the north side of the city.
It was excavated in
the early 20th century, and a reconstruction using original bricks, completed
in 1930, is now shown in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum.
In Assyria and Babylon, archaeologists have found
statues of winged lions and sometimes bulls, placed as protectors at the entrances
of palaces and important public buildings.
The wings of an eagle add the idea of swiftness to
the image.
The lion with wings aptly describes the powerful
rule of Babylon from 605 to 539 B.C.
Thus the winged lion refers to the Babylonian
empire, which was still strong when Daniel was given this vision about 550 BC.
Just as the head of gold in the figure in
Nebuchadnezzar's dream represented Babylon, so this first beast probably
represents Babylon as well.
The lion’s wings plucked off were symbolic of
Nebuchadnezzar’s time of insanity when he was humbled by God to learn that “the
Most High rules in the kingdom of men” (Daniel
4:17 - NKJV).
He became a beast dwelling with beasts and eating
grass like an ox for seven years. (Daniel
4:25).
His hair grew as long as eagles’ wings and his
nails as birds’ claws. (Daniel 4:33)
After accomplishing his appointed times, Nebuchadnezzar
represented by the lion with eagles’ wings, returned to God and he was lifted
up from the earth and made to stand with two feet like a man and the heart of
man given to him.
That is after being a beasts who stood with four
legs, for seven years in insanity, Nebuchadnezzar was returned to sanity and
his kingdom as a man standing with two legs.
The lion receiving a human heart may refer to his
humanitarian rule after his days of insanity.
Following his father’s death,
Nebuchadnezzar reigned as king of Babylon for 43 years, from 604-561 B.C.
Nebuchadnezzar ruled from
Babylon to Asia Minor and from the Caspian Sea to Egypt.
Biblically, his most notable
conquest was that of the nation of Judah, with Daniel being the most famous
captive from that nation.
After his death, Babylon
continued as a strong empire until 539 B.C.
Then it was conquered by the
second rising power in Daniel’s vision, the Medo-Persian Empire.
Bear with Three Ribs in Its
Mouth - Medo-Persia
Daniel 7: 5 "And suddenly another beast, a
second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its
mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: 'Arise, devour much flesh!' (NKJV)
The second beast resembled a bear that was lying on
its side, whose one side was raised up than the other and had three ribs in its
teeth.
The bear was regarded as a ferocious predator in
ancient times.
A voice tells the
second beast to devour flesh until it is satisfied.
The bear probably represents the Medo-Persian
Empire that replaced the Babylonian Empire.
The raising up of
one side of the creature indicates that one of the kingdom’s parts (Persia)
would be dominant.
In Daniel
8, this is made plain to Daniel in a vision two years later when he
sees a ram with two horns, one being higher than the other.
Daniel is told by the angel
Gabriel that the ram represents the kings of Media and Persia (Daniel 8:3, 20).
The three ribs that are devoured
represent three empires conquered by Persia’s first great king, Cyrus the
Great, and his son, Cambyses II.
Cyrus came to power in 558 B.C. He conquered the Lydian Empire in Asia Minor
in 546 and the Babylonian Empire in 539; and his son Cambyses, conquered Egypt
in 525.
Under later kings, the empire expanded
to Greece in the west and to India in the east.
At one point, the Persian Empire
covered parts of three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.
This bear is another illustration of the chest and arms of silver in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
This is the Empire of the Medes and Persians,
where eventually the Persians took full control.
The Medo-Persian Empire lasted
for 200 years until it fell to Alexander the Great in 330 BC.
A new beast was rising in the
west, and its appointed time had come.
Leopard with Wings of a Bird - Greece
The third of the
four beasts is “like a leopard,” except it has four bird-like wings on its back
and four heads (Daniel 7:6).
The leopard is named among other the ferocious
animals of the Bible, known for its speed.
The wings add additional swiftness to an already
extremely fast animal.
In Daniel’s
vision, the beast is given authority to rule.
If the Neo-Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires are
the first two beasts, then this would represent the next empire to rise, the
Greek Empire of Alexander the Great.
As with the second beast, the third beast is
clearly identified by the angel Gabriel. (8: 21)
It was Greece, and the “first king” was Alexander
the Great.
After his untimely death in 323 B.C., his empire
was divided into four smaller kingdoms (Daniel
8:22). The Greeks ruled from 331 to 168 B.C.
The four wings may refer to the four corners of
the earth, signifying world domination.
It may also signify
the swiftness of its conquests.
He had four generals synonymous to the four wings
of a fowl which kept the troupes moving.
The four heads are
predictive of the four divisions of the empire after the death of Alexander.
The leopard is equaled to the belly of brass in
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
Alexander the Great of Greece moved fast, struck
quickly and he was brilliant in his planning and execution like a leopard.
He conquered all of Asia Minor or Turkey in less
than two years in between 334-333 B.C., with 48,100 soldiers, 6,100 cavalry
soldiers and 120 ships.
He defeated Darius III at the Battle of Issus in
November of 333 taking control of the Medo-Persian Empire.
But after his death, several years of struggle
ensued that resulted in the division of his empire into four kingdoms.
The new kingdoms were (1) Greece and Macedon, (2)
Thrace and Asia Minor, (3) Middle East-Asia and (4) Egypt-Palestine.
His four generals - Cassander, Lysimachus, Seleucus,
and Ptolemy—divided up the empire.
According to some historians, Cassander, Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Seleucus were the successors.
The four heads probably refer to the four generals
who succeeded Alexander the Great and divided up the empire.
The Beast with Iron Teeth, Bronze
Claws, and Ten Horns – Rome
Daniel's vision gives special emphasis to the
fourth beast, both in the description of the vision and its interpretation.
Daniel
7: 7, 8
7 "After this I saw in the night visions,
and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had
huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the
residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before
it, and it had ten horns.
8 "I
was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up
among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots.
And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking
pompous words. (NKJV)
The basic type of the animal represented by the
fourth beast isn't given.
However, its deadly weapons are described.
It is called, “terrible and powerful, and
exceedingly strong” with “huge iron teeth” and “ten horns”.
It totally devoured, crushed and trampled down
the former kingdoms.
The large iron teeth would crush and devour
its victims.
Bronze claws would rip and tear at its
victims until they were lacerated, bleeding, and ready to kill with its teeth.
The remaining carcasses were trampled under its
feet.
The horns are a symbol of strength and military
power throughout the ancient Near East.
It often represents pride and honor.
The "up-lifted horn" towards God, seen
in the vision, represents overweening, rebellious pride.
These ten horns represent ten kings.
As we have seen above, the third
beast represented the Greek empire
It was divided into four nations
after the death of Alexander the Great, but all of them finally fell into the
hands of their enemies.
Approximately two centuries
later, the fourth beast conquered all four of these kingdoms and expanded far
beyond the lands conquered by the previous beasts.
The fourth beast represents the Roman Empire that rose to
power after the fall of the Greek empire.
The Roman Empire began
when Augustus Caesar in 44 BC became the first emperor of Rome and ended, in
the west, when the last Roman emperor,
Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic King Odoacer (476 CE).
It
encompassed most of the territory from the Near East through the westernmost
parts of Europe.
It was a mighty kingdom that indeed crushed all its foes.
Rome grew infamous for its intense persecution of Jews and Christians.
Rome grew infamous for its intense persecution of Jews and Christians.
The fourth beast is synonymous with the two legs
of iron in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
The Roman Empire devoured, broke
in pieces and trampled the residue of its enemies with its feet.
The Roman Empire was brutal and it crushed every
person and government to submission.
Ten
Horns
The fourth beast is quite
different from the previous beasts - it has 10 horns.
Because of Daniel's particular
interest, the angel in the vision explained the meaning of the horns.
Daniel 7: 24 The ten horns are ten kings Who shall
arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; He shall be
different from the first ones, And shall subdue three kings. (NKJV)
Historically a revival of the
Roman Empire with 10 kingdoms happened after the fall of the empire.
It has been said that the ten horns
which Daniel describes are the member nations of the European Community.
Although their number isn’t ten any
longer, their original intention was to form a union with ten nations.
Thus the ten horns are synonymous to the ten toes
in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream that speak of the resurrected Roman Empire or the present day European Union.
The ten horns are the same as the ten toes in
chapter two.
The final world empire will be a union of
individual kingdoms.
It will exist in this world mixed with other
kinds of governments.
We are living in a world influenced
in all areas by the Roman Empire.
Many of the institutions that stand
in our world today came originally from Rome.
Many of the languages spoken in the
Western world were derived from the Roman’s language – Latin.
The Roman Church still holds sway
over vast portions of the world.
The Orthodox Church claims its root
to the Eastern Roman Empire.
Even the United States is a
product of Europe in many ways, it is a product of the Roman Empire.
The little horn
Daniel’s attention
is drawn to the destructive fourth beast, and he ponders the meaning of its ten
horns.
Then, a smaller
horn begins to grow from the midst of the ten.
As
the little horn emerges from the beast, three of the original horns
are plucked out by the roots.
Daniel sees that
the little horn has “eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke
boastfully” (Daniel 7: 8).
The proud,
boastful words of the little horn continues until the Ancient of Days sets up a
day of judgment (9,10).
At that time, “the
beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame.” (7:11 -NKJV)
This is in
contrast to the fate of the other three beasts, who lost their dominion but their
lives were prolonged for a season and a time. (7:12)
The little horn represents the Antichrist who will
emerge within the Big Ten, take control of the European Union and knock out
three countries out of the union.
This little horn may also represent
a powerful religious system that would align with the last seven of the 10
political horns that were to arise after the fall of Rome.
That may be the meaning of the feet
and toes made with a mixture of iron and clay that we see in king
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
The Antichrist will take his position of leadership at the
expense of three of those leaders, and he will eventually wield global
authority.
A true
tyrant, the Antichrist will demand worship and seek to control all aspects of
life, as we see him in Revelation 13: 16 - 17.
Christians have been persecuted
through the centuries, as hundreds and thousands of people in Europe lost their
lives.
Even apostles gave warning about
the presence of the spirit of antichrist during their days itself.
In 1
John 2:18 we read, “Little
children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is
coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the
last hour.” (NKJV)
So antichrist is a spirit more
than a person that may possesses people and drive them to persecute the church
of Jesus Christ.
He will speak great and terrible
words against the true and living God.
The Bible indicates religious
persecutions from the “little horn” will come back and result in the death of
many before the return of Christ.
Daniel also saw the end of the
“little horn” along with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ returns, “But the
court shall be seated, And they shall take away his dominion, To consume and
destroy it forever.” (7: 26 - NKJV)
Daniel watches while the "little horn"
continues to speak boastfully, the fourth beast is destroyed and its body
thrown into the blazing fire.
This remind us of verses in Revelation concerning
the Antichrist and the False Prophet:
"The beast was given a
mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies...." (Revelation 13:5)
"But the beast was
captured, and with him the false prophet.... The two of them were thrown alive
into the fiery lake of burning sulfur." (Revelation
19:20)
Son of Man
and the Kingdom of God
Now we come to one of the most important passages
in the Book of Daniel for Christians.
Daniel 7: 13
is the source of Jesus' own self-title as "Son of Man".
It helps us to understand the main theme of Jesus’
ministry, the Kingdom of God.
The Son of Man who reigns over the Kingdom of God is
also the climax of Daniel's vision of the destruction of the beast-nation.
Kingdom of God is the focus of
the visions and interpretations of King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel.
In Daniel 2, as we have
discussed above, King Nebuchadnezzar saw a huge statue made with different
metals and clay, starting with a head of gold and ending with toes made of iron
and clay.
The dream ends with a vision of
a stone that fall on the feet of the statue and destroying the whole thing.
And in Daniel’s vision of
beasts, the fourth is an indescribable beast with no type to mention.
Daniel has seen the vicious beast rising from the
evil sea and a "little horn" that uproots others.
Now he sees a vision of God in his heavenly
courtroom.
The end of the beast is the end of
the worldly kingdoms.
God is in control, and far above the beasts and
powers of the earth and sea.
The Kingdom of God will be established only after
the fourth beast is destroyed.
Daniel’s vision now
leaps forward in time to the judgment which comes before the next kingdom.
Scripture flashes
away from the beast and gives us a glimpse of heaven where God is on the
throne.
Daniel
7: 9 - 11
9 "I watched till thrones were put in
place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And
the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its
wheels a burning fire;
10 A fiery stream issued And came forth from
before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten
thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.
11 "I watched then because of the sound of
the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was
slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. (NKJV)
The Ancient of Days
is the Eternal God, Yahweh and the Most High God.
The expression "Ancient of Days" speaks of the
eternal existence of God.
The Hebrew word for
court actually means “judgment.”
When God comes and the fourth beast is killed and thrown into the
burning flame.
After that Jesus
Christ as the Son of Man, appears before the Most High God to receive His
Kingdom.
Daniel
7: 13, 14
13 "I was watching in the night visions, And
behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to
the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.
14 Then 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
the one Which shall not be destroyed. (NKJV)
The “son of man” came “with the clouds of
heaven!”
“He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his
presence”
The Son of Man was given “authority, glory and sovereign
power” and all nations of earth worship him.
Only a deity is worthy of this kind of worship.
The implication is that this "one like a son of
man" is divine.
The kingdom He rules is everlasting and indestructible.
This prophecy ends by revealing that Jesus will establish the Kingdom of God on earth and give it to the saints of the Most High.
This prophecy ends by revealing that Jesus will establish the Kingdom of God on earth and give it to the saints of the Most High.
The awesome Yahweh, Most High
God, the holder of all authority, glory, and sovereign power gives these very
prerogatives of divinity to this "one like a son of man."
Just before his ascension, Jesus
told his disciples: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given
to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations...." (Matthew 28:18 -19)
Philippians
2:9 - 11
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and
given Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(NKJV)
Conclusion
Let me cut short.
Daniel’s vision of the four beasts provided a prophetic look at future
world events.
Looking back from our perspective, we see these events as world
history and can easily see the correlation between each beast and a world
empire.
However some of it is yet future, even for us.
Daniel’s vision
warned Israel that there would be a procession of enemies and world rulers
holding authority over them.
However, they
should not lose heart. In the end, God is in control, and the Messiah to come
will defeat the kingdoms of this world and establish His throne forever (Daniel
2:44; 7:13–14; Revelation 11:15).
The 4 beasts seen in Daniel dream is
God revealing to a believer, the world time-line and governments to come in a
Godly perspective.
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is God revealing to a
non-believer, Nebuchadnezzar, the world time-line and governments to come in
man’s perspective.
According to man, human governments are of gold
silver brass iron and clay, thus they are beautiful proper and orderly, but in
God eyes they are beasts.
This vision disturbed Daniel, and it
has disturbed a great many others as well.
But the overall message is a positive
one.
Despite all that the evil empires
will accomplish, the Lord is still in control and at His pre-ordained time, he
will return and make all things right.
Watch the
video of this message in English and Malayalam @ naphtalitribetv.com
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