Daniel 7:1-8--Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts

Daniel 7:1-8
English Standard Version

Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts
7 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. 2 Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. 3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. 4 The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. 5 And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ 6 After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. 7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different 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 horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

---

The historical narrative portion of Daniel that we just finished acts as an introduction to the themes of the rest of the book.  The book is cyclical in that many of the dreams have the same or similar message, and our historical narrative portion helps us ground these visions and dreams in reality to know we are talking about real people and real kingdoms.  Without that portion of the story, we may try to turn everything into allegory like with the book of Revelation.  In fact, understanding the portion of the book of Daniel that we are about to enter eliminates much of the confusion of studying the book of Revelation because Jesus showed John many of the same things that were already shown to Daniel, and they were already interpreted for Daniel, so Jesus did not interpret them again for John.

Let's jump in as we study this next portion of the book of Daniel which focuses on a set of dreams given only to Daniel (not to the kings) and their interpretation.  The first dream Daniel records was given to him during the first year of King Belshazzar (the last king of the Babylonian Empire that we read about with the writing on the wall in chapter 5).  Daniel has a dream that he writes down.

He sees the four winds of heaven stirring up the sea (the sea is a symbol used prophetically for the Gentile nations, the land is typically the land of Israel).  Four beasts came out of the sea (out of the Gentile nations of the world).  These will be analogous to the portions of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream that were made of gold, silver, bronze and iron, yet the final beast will also partially represent the portion represented by iron mixed with clay.  Since we can draw these parallels already, we should know the identity of the first two beasts that we see.  The first would be the kingdom of Babylon (it still exists at this time, but is about to fall).   It was symbolized by lions, sometimes even as lions with wings to speak of both its speed and ferociousness.  They saw themselves at the top of the food chain of nations like the lion being an apex predator.  However, its wings were plucked off--it lost its speed and and it was made to stand up like a man and the mind of a man was given to it.

The second is the Medo-Persian Empire that will conquer Babylon.  It was symbolized by a bear that leaned to one side (was stronger on one side than the other).  The Persians would end up being stronger in a military sense, though the Medes would give theme rules of law and government that brought stability instead of a "might makes right" system.  The bear had three ribs in its mouth which are nations that the Medo-Persian Empire would "devour."  Notice the LORD's command to the this beast to "Arise, devour much flesh."  The three nations conquered and "devoured" by the Medo-Persian Empire were Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt.

The third beast is not one whos identity is revealed in the book of Daniel, but we know its identity from history, since we know what empire rose next after the Medo-Persian Empire.  This would be the Greeks under the leadership of Alexander the Great of Macedonia.  It is symbolized as a leopard--one of the fastest land animals.  Alexander the Great would conquer most of the known world in very little time and bring a common language and culture to "the whole world."  He would die young and four of his generals would split the empire (the four heads.)  They would be given dominion over the whole earth.

The last beast in Daniel's vision is the one that terrified him and he focused on.  We'll read much about it in the rest of the book of Daniel as Daniel keeps asking God for more clarity about this portion of the dream.  He will eventually receive an answer that he is writing these things down for another people in another time.  It is not meant for him to fully understand about this fourth beast, but it was not something that would happen during his lifetime and not anything that he needed to worry about.  However, this is the age we currently live in because the time of the fourth beast was inaugurated with the rise of the Roman Empire.  Pax Romana came about because Rome was a fierce enemy the forced other nations into submission, or destroyed them.  Daniel had no words to describe this beast that he saw, but John will call it a dragon, and that seems fitting and explains why Daniel was so terrified.  We may think the Roman Empire is dead and gone, but it lives on today in what we would call "The West," it just doesn't have an emperor ruling over all of it at this time, but a day is coming in the future when Antichrist will rise and rule over the nations that were in the Roman Empire (which was the known world at the time, and possibly he will rule over the entire world, even the parts not known about to Daniel and John).

John's description of the kingdom of Antichrist is nearly identical to the description we see here, and we can draw parallels back to the statue because we see ten horns on the beast just like there were ten toes of the statue, so these should represent the leaders of the ten nations that make up this empire (though they don't mix well with each other like iron and clay don't mix--some are strong and some are brittle and fragile).  Another horn (the Antichrist) arises from among these nations and when it rises, three of the ten original horns will be plucked up (this probably indicates some war that accompanies Antichrist rising to power and three of the ten nations are destroyed in the process).  This new horn is described as "little" compared to the other horns, but it will make great boasts and speak great blasphemies.  This will be the world leader that will demand that everyone bow down and worship his image (sounds a whole lot like what we've seen already with Nebuchadnezzar and even a bit with Darius).  This same spirit has been at work in all of the four beasts, yet God has directed the process and this is all part of His plan to move history forward to accomplish His ultimate plans for salvation and blessing for his people and judgment and destruction for the wicked.

We need not fear these kingdoms of men or what they will do to us because we belong to the kingdom of God which will destroy all the kingdoms of men that stand against it and only the Kingdom of God will remain in the end.  Remember this was the ending to Nebuchadnezzar's first dream, and it was the thing that disturbed him so much.  The kingdoms Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece and Rome are very much alive and well in the worldviews and philosophies of the world today.  Many things we think are "new" are really repackages versions of what is ancient.  Solomon will even told us as much when he said, "There is nothing new under the sun."  As we understand these four empires and the philosophies that made each of them unique, we are more prepared to deal with the philosophies of today that are just amalgamations of them.  They were all in a sense in the spirit of antichrist (with a small "a") because they were all opposed to the people of God and the plan of God, but a day is coming when all this rebellion and wickedness will come to a head an the LORD will say "enough" and the time of judgment will come for the wicked and the time of blessings will come for the righteous (those who are clothed in the righteousness of Christ).

Now read Psalm 1 in this context:
Psalm 1
English Standard Version

Book One

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked
1 Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish. (emphasis added)