Good morning,
Daniel 7 is a powerful testament to the certainty of God’s ultimate victory. Despite the chaos, destruction, and uncertainty embodied by the four beasts, God’s sovereign rule is unquestionable. He will judge justly, and His kingdom, handed to the Son of Man and shared with the saints, will endure eternally. This assures believers that despite worldly tribulations, God’s justice and His promise of an everlasting Kingdom are certain. (Bible Hub Chapter Summaries-Daniel 7)
Daniel 7
Vision of the Four Beasts
Vision of the four beasts (v.1-8)
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.2 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
Daniel dreams of four beasts arising from the sea, each unique in appearance. The first is like a lion with eagle’s wings, the second like a bear, the third like a leopard with four wings and four heads, and the fourth terrifying and powerful with iron teeth and ten horns. As Daniel watches, a little horn appears on the fourth beast, replacing three of the original horns. (Bible Hub Chapter Summaries-Daniel 7)
The four beasts represent the same four world empires pictured in the great statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2). They were Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome (cf. v.17). In verse seven, the ten horns on this beast pictured the ten kingdoms that would come out of the Roman Empire as it dissolved, but it pictures more. Among these ten horns will rise another little horn (v.24). He will be the Antichrist who will restore the Roman Empire.
The fourth beast is pictured again in revelation 13, the culmination of all the world empires. Revelation 13:3 tells how one of his heads was “wounded to death”. The Roman Empire declined. It will be restored then by this Antichrist. The ten horns here are the same ten kings represented in Revelation 17:16 who will cooperate with the Antichrist and give power to him. (The Rice Reference Bible,1981, pg.921)
Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001 chaplain@alaskaseniors.com
Leave a Reply