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[Daniel Ch.7: Daniel's Vision of 4 Beasts]

I. Four Ferocious Beasts (7:1-8)  

     The same world empires of Chapter 2 are here represented by ravening, wild beasts.  However, a different view of things is present: God's view of these powers and their relationship to His people Israel.  

     Similarities of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7--

     (1) Same 4 symbols used of 4 earthly kingdoms, and 1 symbol of the heavenly kingdom

     (2) Same progressive inferiority of metals and of beasts

     (3) Same duality for the third kingdom

     (4) Same 10-fold division of the fourth kingdom

     (5) Same interpretation by God  

     Dissimilarities of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7

     (1) Kingdoms views are big image versus wild beasts (man's view and God's view)

     (2) Chapter 2 has no antichrist or an eleventh toe; Chapter 7's antichrist is prominent in 4th kingdom.

     (3) Chapter 7 was written about 62 years after Chapter 2.  

DAN 7:1  In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon

     B.C. 553. Daniel had more dreams recorded under the riotous Belshazzar than under any other kings. Daniel was then past 80 years of age. (So was the apostle John when he wrote the Revelation.) For a period of some 23 years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel lived a retired life, known as "years of silence."  

DAN 7:2  ...behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.

     An appropriate setting for this vision. Winds refer to heavenly forces, maybe angelic agencies (cf. Jer. 49:36; Rev. 7:1,2).

     Sea often refers to the sea of humanity (Rev. 17:15; Luke 21:25).  A picture of restlessness on earth and the unseen forces at work in heavens and on earth.  

DAN 7:3  And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

     Nations affirm their beastly character by (unconsciously) assigning animals in their national emblems--

• British lion

• Russia bear

• American eagle

• Chinese dragon

• Persian ram

• Macedonian goat

• etc.

     The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings.

     Babylon is often referred to as a lion (Jer. 4:7) and an eagle (Jer. 49:22). The winged lion was a familiar enough motif in Babylonian art. A lion with wings! The king of beasts and king of birds. Picture of strength and swiftness.  

DAN 7:3-4  ...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.

     This is a complete change of nature, showing it reduced to a position of weakness. Cf. Daniel 4 (Nebuchadnezzar's insanity and consequent humbling).  

DAN 7:5  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

     A bear is slow, awkward, and lumbering, depending on brute force to conquer. Certainly a picture of Persia. Persia often won by brute force and sheer strength. Xerxes' expedition against Greece was done with 2,500,000 men.

     One side of the bear is raised, meaning the Persians who took the upper hand of the Medes in their historic union.

     The three ribs are the three kingdoms conquered by Persia:

(1) Lydia -- in 546

(2) Babylon -- in 539

(3) Egypt -- in 525

     These three nations formed a triple alliance to check the powers of Persia, but they were destroyed.  

DAN 7:6  ...and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads

     The most agile and graceful of wild beasts, and extremely fierce. Its four wings connote the double swiftness of Alexander's armies, compared to the previous empires. In 8 years time, the Greeks marched and conquered more than 11,000 miles of territory, from Greece to Insia.  Alexander died on June 13, 323 B.C.

     Its four heads point to the division of the Grecian empire into four parts after Alexander's death (cf. Dan. 8:21-22)--

     (1) Egypt and Palestine ruled by Ptolemy

     (2) North Syria ruled by Seleucus

     (3) Macedonia and Thrace ruled by Cassander

     (4) Asia Minor ruled by Lysimachus

     NOTE: The new element of the four heads here probably troubled Daniel (vs. 15,28), as he did not see any fourfold indications in Nebuchadnezzar's image.  He was to wait another two years for the vision of the ram and he-goat (chapter 8) before the solution appeared.

DAN 7:7  ...behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; ...and it had ten horns.

     This beast is without a comparison, because nothing in nature could be found to correspond to the beastliness of the Roman Empire.  In Revelation 13:2, John combined the features of all previous beasts--leopard, bear, lion--in this single beast.  

DAN 7:8  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:

     This "little horn" is the antichrist, as described in Revelation 13. He will make his way up on world stage very insignificantly and stealthily. He finally manifests his true evil character at the middle of the Tribulation (Dan. 9:27).

     Three of the ten nations will be subdued by the anticrhist in his initial rise to power.

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