Daniel 7

The Four Beasts

Historical Setting• The book of Daniel naturally divides itself naturally into two parts...

God’s providence in history - Dan 1:1-6:28 and God’s purpose in history - Dan 7:1-12:13.

• The second half of the book contains four visions seen by Daniel...a. The vision of the four beasts - Dan 7:1-28 b. The vision of the ram and the goat - Dan 8:1-27 c. The vision of the seventy weeks - Dan 9:1-27 d. The vision of the time of the end - Dan 10:1-12:13

• In this last section God reveals to Daniel things about His purpose and plan in history regarding the nation of Israel and the coming everlasting kingdom.

• Between the royal edict of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4 and the first year of the reign of king Belshazzar was a period of 30 years..

• Fifty years have passed since Daniel was taken as a small boy from Israel. If Daniel was taken captive at 15 then he would be around 67 for this, his first vision.

• Daniel has fallen into disfavor, living in Babylon largely as a forgotten man. Belshazzar has not even heard of this man who is the spokesman of the living God. The bearer of God’s truth has been marginalized and life goes on at the hub of the Babylonian empire without any of the influence of the Word of God. It would be another 14 years before Babylon was conquered

Setting the Stage

Act One

Isa 17:12; Re 17:15 “Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.” “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”

Jer 49:36 “And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.”

- Sea - Mass of

Humanity

Wind - Forces God uses to Control

The Beasts

Act Two – The heavenly scene

Act Three - The Son of Man

The Interpretation“A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant” (Jeremiah 4:7). He further declared, “Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens” (Lamentations 4:19).

The Interpretation

The bear had three ribs in its mouth, likely reflecting the fact that this empire had conquered the nations of Lydia (546 B.C.), Babylon (539 B.C.), and Egypt (525B.C.).

LydiaLydia

BabylonBabylon

EgyptEgypt

The Interpretation

See chapter 8:5, 21, where the “king of Greece” moves so rapidly that his feet “touched not the ground.” Alexander came to the Macedonian throne when he was but twenty years of age; by the time he was twenty-five he was virtual master of the Eastern world.

The Interpretation

The scholarship of 1800 years have always ascribed the vicious beast to be that of Rome.

• The little horn represented a king (entity?) that was “more stout” than the others (governments).

• It “made war with the saints” and attempted to “wear out” the people of God.

• It prevailed against the saints until the Lord gave a judgment on behalf of his people.

• The little horn would “speak words against the Most High”.• It (he) would “think to change the times and the law” of God.• The saints were given into his hand for “a time, times, and

half a time.”

The Little Horn

• If one is premillennial the little horn is unknown person who will become the “antichrist” prior to the return of Jesus establishing his earthly reign for a literal 1000 years.

• Another prevailing interpretation is that the little horn represents spiritual Rome or Catholicism where papal powers were a force to recon with for 1250 years. To accommodate this ideal one takes the time and times and a half and combines it with the Revelation translating days into years. Some of the brotherhood’s best scholars take this position like Wayne Jackson and Burton Coffman.

• Others look at this from a Roman king perspective and offers Domitian as the king of the little horn.

Three Intrepretations

The Roman King TheoryTheir evidence goes as follows:

1. Augustus 31B.C. – A.D. 14 2. Tiberius A.D 14-373. Caligula A.D. 37-414. Claudius A.D. 41-545. Nero A.D. 54-686. Galba A.D. 68-697. Otho A.D. 698. Vitellius A.D. 699. Vespasian A.D. 69-7910.Titus A.D. 79-8111.Domitian A.D. 81-96

CharacteristicsMcGuiggan listed the characteristics of the person identified as the little horn.

• First, he was from the fourth beast, that is a Roman (7:7, 8, 24).

• Second, he could be counted as an eleventh king. • Third, he would be boastful (7:8, 20). • Fourth, he would claim diety (7:25). • Fifth, he was to be a persecutor of the saints

(7:21, 22, 25).

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