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I. Some Clues
Daniel 7:1
This was written about 14 years before the fall of the Babylonian empire.
Belshazzar began his reign in the third year of his father’s rule, according to an ancient text [ANET 313], which would have made it about 553 BC.
This is a vision, not a story.
the Book of Daniel shifts here from narrative as in the first half, to prophecy of the future.
Some of the most detailed prophecies of the future are found in the book of Daniel.
Yet this chapter connects with the previous story of Daniel in the Lion’s den because it is written in Aramaic, but the next chapter switches to Hebrew.
Aramaic was spoken by nearly everyone in that part of the world, even if it wasn’t their native language.
In that respect it was kind of like how English functions today.
English doesn’t have the most speakers of any language - that would be Mandarin.
And many people who do speak it do so as a second language.
But so many people speak English that you can go to nearly any country in the world and find someone to talk to.
I think Daniel wrote the book in Aramaic because this chapter concerns all the nations of the world, not just Israel.
The four great beasts represent four successive earthly kings, all of which are now known to history.
Daniel 7:
4. The Kingdom that comes after these kingdoms is the Kingdom of God.
It lasts forever and the humans that help run it are God’s Holy Ones.
The Kings represent separate kingdoms
We have seen a list of kingdoms in a vision before.
Back in .
II.
The Four Kingdoms of Earth
The First Beast: Babylon
This beast first had his wings plucked then he lost his beastly nature and was given the mind of a man.
The earthly Kingdoms of this world are beastly in that they all operate with selfish cruelty.
But Nebuchadnezzar lost his sanity and was given the mind of a beast in chapter 4.
After this he became a worshipper of God just before he died.
So his kingdom was briefly God-honoring and compassionate - thus he started acting truly humane [human].
We have seen a list of four kings/
The Second Beast: Medo-Persia
The Second Beast is a bear.
Like a bear it was strong and fierce, but not particularly agile or fast.
It is raised up on one side because while the Medes asserted themselves first, the Persians eventually so dominated the empire that it simply became known as the Persian empire.
The three ribs either represent the three kingdoms that came before - Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon - or it represents the three primary nations conquered by the Persians - Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt.
It was commanded to conquer (devour flesh), which means its power came by God’s appointment.
The Third Beast: Greece
as Greece.
This empire was a leopard because it was so fast, and had four wings for even more speed.
Alexander the Great
The Empire that followed Persia was Greece.
This empire was a leopard because it was so fast, and had four wings for even more speed.
Alexander the Great
The empire that followed Persia was Greece.
This empire was a leopard because it was so fast, and had four wings for even more speed.
Alexander the Great conquered everything from India to Europe in just 12 years, only to die at the age of 33 in 323 BC.
His empire was split up by his four generals, which is why Daniel has the leopard with four wings.
Again dominion is given to Greece by God - Greece won because God wanted Greece to win.
The Fourth Beast: Rome
Daniel 7:7
The empire that followed Greece was Rome.
Daniel gets extra informations about this empire.
It is so hideous that he could only say it was terrifying and strong.
In other words, this is the nightmare monster, not an animal.
It had iron teeth, and didn’t just conquor, it totally destroyed the other nations.
Rome was a force that could not be stopped.
Yet there are features here that don’t fit the historical Roman empire —
III.
Final Feature: The ten horns
In chapter two, the last part of the image is made of Iron, with the toes partly of Iron partly of clay.
It has ten toes, so the number ten is pretty important since Daniel mentions it twice.
the Horns clearly refer to specific Kings, and there is another king that comes after them
To make sure we don’t miss the point, Daniel rehearses the same information about the fourth beast again when he asks the angel to interpret the vision for him in .
Except here we learn more about them
So the little horn is a great speaker and unusually boastful.
It destroys three kings to make way for his own power, and is greater than the ten kings.
So that we can’t possibly miss the significance of the ten horns, Daniel tells us what the angel interpreted for him
So there can be no doubt that the ten horns represent ten kings, and that somehow they arise out of the Roman Empire.
Yet the Roman Empire never had ten kings ruling at once.
The solution is that the ten kings haven’t happened yet.
The Apostle John wrote Revelation in the late first century, and he still talks about the ten horns as something future.
He mentions them several times - in his vision of the Woman clothed with the sun (); in the vision of the seven-headed/ten-horned beast ().
But the most important mention is in vision of the woman who sits on a scarlet beast ().
There he specifically interprets the ten horns
Revelation was the very last book of the New Testament to be written, so when the NT closed, the ten kings were still not around.
The solution to the riddle of the ten kings is that they are still future.
The Roman Empire did not fall in the same way as the other nations fell - the other three nations were defeated by the nation that came after them, but Rome collapsed from the Inside.
As late as the 19th century, Paris was supposed to be the “third capital of the Roman Empire”.
So in a very real way, the nations of Europe are the Roman Empire still.
I would also add that other nations colonized by Europeans are also Roman in this sense.
America, Australia, and New Zealand.
So even though the Roman Empire is no more, the “fourth beast” is still active.
The ten kings are probably ten European Kingdoms that give their authority to the other figure- the little horn.
Since it hasn’t happened yet, I have no idea which ten European kingdoms that might be.
Some people used to think that the European Union was the ten kings, but there are more than ten nations now, so that doesn’t work.
It is unwise to try to interpret prophecy using the current state of world affairs.
If Jesus comes back today then that will work, but if he chooses to wait longer, you will end up looking crazy and making the Bible look crazy along with you.
Since the ten kings are still future, the little horn that replaces three of them is also future.
The little represents the most famous evil man of prophecy - the AntiChrist.
The Little Horn = the AntiChrist
This figure will hate all who truly worship God and will try to destroy them
Dan 7:
He will prosper for 3.5 years in the end times.
Revelation tells us that this person will deceive the world so that they will all worship him
Rev 13:3
Yet the AntiChrist will only prosper because God will let him
the rest of the beasts endure for a while, because even though they are conquered by the other beasts, the other beasts do not totally destroy them, but assimilate aspects of them.
Do you know why we have 60 minutes to an hour?
That system of numbering is leftover from the Babylonians.
Every succeeding nations borrowed some elements from the nations it conquered.
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