Daniel 7:1-8: The Four Beasts

Daniel’s Opening Vision and the Four Beasts

Daniel chapter 7, starting in verse 1 here now, the inspired word of God. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed. Then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it.

Daniel said, I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea, and four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle.

I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man. A human mind also was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one resembling a bear.

And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth. And thus they said to it, arise, devour much meat. After this, I kept looking, and behold, another one like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird.

The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong. And it had large iron teeth.

It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet. And it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up from among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it.

And behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth uttering great boasts. Let's pray. Father, once again, as we look into your word, and in this mysterious book of Daniel, with these fantastic pictures that he has given to us, I pray, Father, that you would open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts, that we would see, hear, and understand what you have to say to us.

And in so doing, we would advance your kingdom, and become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. I want to begin by reading a quote for you. And listen carefully to the wording of this.

In the late summer of that year, we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river, and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river, there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving, and blue in the channels.

Troops went by the house and down the road, and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees, too, were dusty, and the leaves fell early that year, and we saw the troops marching along the road, and the dust rising, and leaves stirred by the breeze falling, and the soldiers marching, and afterward the road bare and white, except for the leaves.

It's a quotation from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway is considered one of the most outstanding authors of the 20th century. And the reason that I quoted that to you was because of his use of imagery.

He has a fantastic grasp of the English language, and using word pictures or imagery. When you read the quotation from Hemingway, if you pause and really reflect on it, you can actually picture the scene in your mind as though you were really there.

You can picture that little house in the village. Looking out the window, you see the river, and the riverbed he describes in detail. And then looking past that, the plains, and then to the mountains, majestic mountains.

And the troops pass by leaving only the fallen leaves and the white dust. What a picture he paints. Hemingway and others like him understand how to convey a vision or a picture through the use of words without losing the reader along the way.

It's a gift to be able to write in this fashion. We also find that God has given this gift to many of the biblical writers. Solomon stands out as being extremely gifted in his skill of using imagery and word pictures to convey biblical truth.

We see that many of the prophetic writers exhibited this gift. And through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these writers were able to take the dreams and the visions and describe them in ways that we can understand them.

And this is true of Daniel. In chapter 2, Daniel was able to take the vision of King Nebuchadnezzar and not only relate the vision, but interpret it and then ascribe meaning to it. Remember, Daniel was a prophet, though somewhat different than most of the other prophets, but a true prophet nonetheless.

The Nature and Purpose of Prophecy

I want to explain a couple of things. I want to do a little review of some prophetic principles before we get into this section, and I think it'll become obvious why. Firstly, what is prophecy? Louis Burckhoff, in his textbook on systematic theology, says, prophecy may simply be defined as the proclamation of that which God has revealed.

The prophet received special revelations from God and, in turn, conveyed them to the people. It's a very basic understanding of prophecy. But prophecy usually has two dimensions to it. And the first dimension is forth-telling or truth-telling.

That is, it's declaring God's truth, especially when the people were in sin. That's why we read Jeremiah 11, 1 to 13, this morning. There's a classic example of what a prophetic forth-telling is. Let me just read the first three verses just to refresh your memory.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Hear the words of this covenant and speak to men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant.

You see the beginnings of the covenant. And then Jeremiah continues in that chapter to list all the details of the violations to the covenant. But the second element is also then forth-telling, which is what most people think of.

And we see that in so many scriptures where we're getting a glimpse of the future, at least from their perspective. Jeremiah 31 is an example. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

Notice, a new covenant. The days are coming. The predictive element of the prophecy was usually predicated upon the response of the people. And I say that because prophecy, in a real sense, was God bringing a covenant lawsuit against the people or a nation.

And the prophets were acting as prosecuting attorneys. They would bring the charges from God and display them to the people. Obey God, repent, or this is what will happen. So that brings us to the purpose of prophecy.

And first, let me say this. Prophecy was not to impress anybody. God was not performing like a magic trick. The primary purpose of prophecy was to call people to repentance who were violating the covenant.

Remember, Jonah was sent to Nineveh to call the nation to repentance. And then when they did repent, God withheld judgment from them. The prophetic word accomplished the mission for which God had sent it exactly.

Secondarily, fulfilled prophecy verifies the authenticity of the prophet and his message. Jesus even applied this principle to himself. In John chapter 10, verse 37, Jesus said, If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me.

But if I do them, though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father. So we can see that Jesus himself was saying, If you see what I'm doing, you've got to believe.

The third purpose is the prophetic word can be comforting to the church. Knowing that in the end, God's people will be vindicated. As a former law enforcement officer, this is one of the things that God used to draw me to himself.

Perfect justice. One of the things that we know in our society today, we don't see perfect justice in our legal system. But in God's kingdom, perfect justice. And the call is to the church to be patient because God will vindicate his church.

In the end, the church of Jesus Christ will be victorious. We just finished singing the church is one foundation. I just love that hymn. And the fifth stands in particular mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war.

She waits the consummation of peace forevermore till with division glorious. Her longing eyes are blessed and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest. Oh, I long for that day. So what about the language of prophecy?

How is it communicated? Well, it's communicated to us in several different ways. Much prophecy uses typology. You've heard me mention that numerous times, even in a Daniel. Typology is steeped in the concept of two covenants.

What is true in seed form in the old covenant is expanded upon and given comes to full reality in the new covenant. For example, Moses was a type of Christ. He delivered Israel from bondage to Egypt. In the new covenant, Christ delivers his people not from a land, but out of bondage to sin.

And we see many types of Christ's in the old covenant, including Daniel. We've been commenting as we've gone through the book through the first six chapters on the theme of death and resurrection in Daniel.

And we see that that's a picture. Every time we saw that it's a picture points to Christ and his death and resurrection in the new covenant. But parables are also used in prophecy. Jesus, in Matthew 13, used parables to describe the nature and the future of the kingdom.

The parables of the wheat and the tares, the sower sowing the seed. Parable of the mustard seed, the leaven. And from those we can see that most prophecies are given by using symbols. Symbols that we can understand in the physical realm, just as those we mentioned.

But there are some symbols that we see used numerous times and continually throughout all of scripture. For example, when you see the sun, moon, and stars of either falling or rising, it's referring to governing officials or nations or peoples.

It's not talking about the real sun, moon, and stars, but it's symbolic. Horns usually represent power or authority. And even in the present case, in the chapter we're in, we see that horns will represent kings.

There's many more, some of which we will see in the present chapter of Daniel and others in future chapters. But before we get into the crux of the text for this morning, I want to remind you that the general rules of interpreting scripture, which are biblical rules, not man-made rules, they apply to prophecy as well.

Now granted, there are some, it's a little bit more difficult, but the basic rules. Scripture interprets scripture. The cardinal rule of biblical interpretation is scripture always interprets scripture.

Obscure passages are interpreted by the light of one. If you don't know if something seems dark and dim, look for something that's teaching the same thing that's clearer. And this one is cardinal, and yet people violate it all the time.

Words don't change meanings. Nouns are nouns, verbs are verbs, and et cetera. Also, as you approach a prophetic chapter, a couple of pertinent questions are important to ask. First, who were the primary recipients of the prophecy?

Why did the prophet go to them with these words? What did it mean to them? And are the symbols or figures of speech that are used in the prophecy, are they used elsewhere that will bring light to it? Here's the cardinal principle of all hermeneutics, but especially prophecy, and it's simply this.

Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of all prophecy as well as all scripture. If you have a system of theology where prophecy, where Christ is not the center, I can tell you this. It's wrong. If you've been paying attention to the prophecy review, you may be asking yourself a question.

Daniel doesn't seem to fit the role of a prosecuting attorney. And you'd be right. He doesn't. He doesn't come with the message of repentance or judgment will come. So he doesn't fit the normal role of a prophet.

But there's no question that he is all the gifting of a prophet and uses his gifts for the benefit of God's people. Do you know why I can say with so dogmatically, Daniel is a prophet? You know why I can say that?

Because Jesus said that. Matthew 24, 15. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand. And in the entire scheme of prophecy, Daniel plays an extremely crucial part.

Now we've completed the first half of the book of Daniel. And it's often referred to as the historic section. We now come to what's often called the prophetic part of the book. And it is notably different than the first half of the book.

Daniel 7 as the Bridge to the Book’s Prophetic Half

So I'm going to give you two quotations from people that I respect. First one is from John Calvin. Here's what John Calvin says about this. Here, Daniel begins to offer instruction peculiar to the church.

For God had formerly appointed him an interpreter and instructor to profane kings. But he now appoints him a teacher to the church that he may exercise his office within it and instruct the sons of God in the bosom of the church.

We must notice this, first of all, because thus far, his predictions extended beyond the limits of the household of faith. But here, Daniel's duty is restricted to the church. Second quotation is from Sinclair Ferguson.

And he says this. Chapter seven is at one and the same time perhaps the most exhilarating and the most puzzling of all the chapters in this remarkable book. It is also in a variety of ways the central chapter.

The seventh chapter introduces the second half of Daniel. But it does so in a way that links the two sections. It takes us back in time from the point reached at the end of chapter six. Once again, we are in the reign of Belshazzar prior to the night of the feast.

That is the background for chapter five. Whatever else this may intended to signify, it serves the function of linking two different sections. It indicates that there is an important connection between them that the reader should not ignore.

So let's go right to verse one of chapter seven. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed. Then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it.

As we read before, the dream or vision Daniel had goes back to the reign of Belshazzar. In our study now, we've only seen one day in the reign of Belshazzar, his last day. This dream of Daniel's goes back to his first year of reigning over Babylon.

It appears that Daniel doesn't share this dream with the king. At which time, not at that time, which lends credence to Calvin's comments that we just read. Calvin astutely points out that this wasn't for the king's benefit as the vision of Nebuchadnezzar was for him.

But the mention of Belshazzar gives us a frame of reference for the prophecies to come in the second half of the book. And this is the first time that we are told that Daniel himself had a dream. The other visions were primarily the king's, but we actually get an emphasis.

He not only saw a dream, but it's called a dream and a vision. Daniel saw a dream and a vision in his mind. In other words, he was of sound mind when he saw this vision. And he wrote it down and related the summary of it.

Calvin says, by this phrase, he teaches us how his seeing the vision was not for his own sake personally, but for common edification of the church. So verse two. Daniel said, I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.

This is a great verse to begin our study in prophecy. The sea in scripture usually means the unbelieving world or in general the world. The winds of heaven indicate forces of heaven that are causing trouble in the world.

And since he says the four winds, it means the trouble was coming from every direction. The force of this verse is that at this time, there was universal chaos in the world. If you pause and think about it, what better way to present chaos than a storm battering in the sea?

If you've ever been on the sea when a storm comes up, then you know what I mean. I've been blessed living on Long Island. I always had a friend that had a boat. Never had one myself, but I always had a friend.

I didn't do that on purpose either, by the way. But I've been out on a boat fishing when the weather changed. And coming off the Atlantic and trying to get back one of those inlets can be pretty treacherous.

So I've got a pretty good idea of what Daniel is talking about here. There's universal chaos. Just think about the condition of the ancient world at the time of Daniel. And especially before the Babylonian Empire.

You can read about some of it in the Old Testament, but there was constant conflicts, brutality. Yes, I think chaos is a perfect way to describe the world at that time. Daniel's dream and vision showed that it wasn't merely what was happening on earth, but that this was a heavenly battle.

God bringing judgment upon the earth for his violation of the covenant. Notice it was the winds of heaven that were causing the disturbance. More than likely an allusion to angelic forces at work. Keep in mind that what is playing out on earth over the millennia is always a reflection of the heavenly battle.

That's the backdrop for this vision. Also keep in mind that this vision parallels Nebuchadnezzar's vision in chapter 2. And in the midst of this chaos, four beasts emerge from the sea. Four very different beasts.

Beasts represent humanity when he moves away from the image of God. We've seen that before in Nebuchadnezzar. When Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself, he was humbled and God had him responding like a beast.

The Lion, Bear, and Leopard as Successive World Empires

So let's look at the vision, verse 4. The first was like a lion and he had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked and it was lifted up from the ground. And made to stand on two feet like a man.

A human mind also was given to it. Now this vision compared with Nebuchadnezzar's vision portrays the Babylonian empire. Remember the head of gold, the majestic empire. And here it's the form of a lion.

The lion is a majestic beast but fierce. And striking fear and awe in those who are confronted by it. Remember that Babylon was a glorious kingdom from a human perspective. That's why God gave it the head of gold.

But was also very ruthless. The king of Babylon held life and death in his hands. Remember, with a quick word, at his displeasure, he sent all of his advisors to death. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Knew exactly how quickly things could change. You can only imagine then the fate of the enemies of Babylon. But the lion was seen to have wings. Wings symbolize swiftness. This refers to how quickly the Babylonian empire spread and usurped other nations.

And really is somewhat remarkable. So this beast signified both strength and power. But also great speed. It's interesting. Jeremiah compared Nebuchadnezzar to a lion. In Jeremiah 4 .7, he says a lion has gone up from his thicket.

And a destroyer of nations has set out. He has gone out from his place to make your land a waste. Your cities will be ruins without inhabitants. That's Nebuchadnezzar, the lion. But Ezekiel compares him to an eagle.

Ezekiel 17 .3. Thus says the Lord God. A great eagle with great wings, long pinions and full plumage of many colors. Came to Lebanon and took away the top of the cedar. So we see other prophets, a lion, wings.

But then the vision adds the fact that its wings were plucked. That means its swiftness and advancing was halted. In other words, just like the vision in chapter 2. The Babylonian empire would come to an end.

It was not going to be a forever empire. That image is further by this phrase. And it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man. A human mind also was given to it. That signifies that the strength and the power of the lion was stripped from it.

And it just became like a normal man. The empire lost its glory and was subject to its enemies. Which is depicted by the second beast. Look at verse 5. And behold, another beast, the second one, resembling a bear.

And it was raised up on one side and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth. And thus they said to it, arise, devour much meat. The appearance of this beast seems to startle Daniel for he says, behold.

Remember in biblical terms that behold can also be translated suddenly, something unexpected. The kingdom corresponds to the silver portion of the statue. Remember how Belshazzar was celebrating with his nobles when Darius the Mede conquered him.

Suddenly as he was feasting, sitting down, boasting and having a feast with his nobles. And Darius was right at the door. The bear represents the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. Now the bear is not as glorious and stately an animal as the lion is.

But that doesn't mean he's any less fierce. But there's a reason the lion is called the king of the beasts. Calvin says, he compares the Persians to a bear on account of their barbarity. Since we already have pronounced the nation fierce and savage.

Then again the Persians were not civilized like the Assyrians and Chaldeans. Daniel is impressed by three statements about the bear. First, he says it was raised up on one side. It appears that that symbolizes the imbalance of power that existed between the Medes and the Persians.

Remember you have Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, both ruling in this empire. And it was an imbalance in power. Secondly, it had three ribs in its mouth. As this beast emerged to replace the first, it had already begun to destroy.

As we quoted Calvin a few moments ago, they were barbarous people. Third, the bear is told to arise and devour much meat. The fact that an empire would be given the command to conquer, conquers others.

Doesn't sit right with some Christians. But it's a fact that God raises up kingdom to execute judgment upon others for their sin. The fact is the very reason for the Babylonian captivity was God giving over Judah to Nebuchadnezzar.

Remember we saw that in the first chapter. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand.

So too God gave success to the Medes and the Persians to accomplish his plan and his purpose. Which he is revealing in part to Daniel in his vision. Verse six. After this I kept looking and behold another one like a leopard.

Which had on its back four wings of a bird. And the beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it. Now this beast corresponds to the bronze part of the statue. And as we have noted the Greek empire was under Alexander.

Was quite some empire. He was called Alexander the Great. And this fits not only the chronology but the character of the Greek empire. Alexander was known for the speed at which he expanded his empire.

Leopards or panthers some translations say are known for their speed. But also this one had four wings on its back. Clearly indicating an unusual speed. And as for the four heads it seems to indicate a division of power.

And this too fits the Greek empire. Because though Alexander expanded his empire quickly. In fact more quickly according to historians. More quickly than any other emperor of that time period. He didn't have much time to enjoy it.

He died at the age of 33. After his death his four top generals succeeded him and ruled the empire. Four heads on the back of the leopard. And Daniel said that dominion was given to it. That kingdom lasted from the 4th century BC to the 1st century BC.

Dominion was given to it. Look at verse 7. After this I kept looking in the night visions. And behold a fourth beast dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong. And it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet.

And it was different from all the beasts that were before it. And it had ten horns. It's fair to say that Daniel was captivated by the vision. I say that because after the third beast he kept looking.

A few verses later he tells us he was distressed and alarmed at the visions. But sometimes that just peaks to curiosity. Because even though he was alarmed he kept looking at the vision. And again what does he see?

A fourth beast emerges. And he doesn't give a further description. He doesn't compare it to another animal as he did the first three. This is merely a beast. And the description he gives is that it was dreadful and terrifying.

It was extremely strong. It had iron teeth. Now again we see the same metal in the Nebuchadnezzar vision of the feet. The fourth kingdom was of iron. And though Daniel gives no reference to a known beast he describes what the beast does.

It devours and crushes anything that stands in its way. And what it doesn't devour it tramples with its feet. This beast is so horrible. That it lacks comparison to any other beast in the animal kingdom.

It's interesting. This is a very apt description of the Roman Empire. Remember Tacitus? He was a first century Roman historian. Listen to what he says about the Roman Empire. They plunder, they butcher, they ravish.

And call it by the lying name of empire. They make it a desert and call it peace. But Daniel goes on and makes a point of describing this beast as being different from the other beasts. This beast has ten horns.

Horns being a symbol of strength or power in scripture. And later in verse 24 we see the horns representing ten kings. So the Roman Empire will be somehow divided which we know it was. We know that Rome set up sub-kingdoms or provinces all throughout the empire.

And these kingdoms were all under Roman rule and carried out Rome's mandates and dictates. Even as Herod ruled over Israel but only under Roman authority. And then Daniel sees conflict within this empire.

Look at verse 8. While I was contemplating the horns, behold another horn, a little one, came up among them. And three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it. And behold his horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.

Three kings being deposed and one king, the little horn, rising to supremacy. We know there was constant treachery and infighting in the Roman Empire. Disputes over succession to the throne. And we will see in a future sermon how the little horn wages war with the saints and other things.

But now comes uttering great boasts. What a fantastic vision. You can see why Daniel couldn't take his eyes off it. Yet it terrified him. In fact it says later on that he was alarmed. The imagery is outstanding.

You can almost close your eyes and picture these. In fact if you close your eyes, do it later. But if you close your eyes, what vision do you get of that fourth beast? It would be interesting. You know there's a number of authors of our day who are gifted in imagery.

Hemingway is just one. F. Scott Fitzgerald is another who comes to mind. And when they write, you get a mental picture of what they're writing about. The biblical writers not only use imagery, but they are conveying important messages to their readers.

Daniel is conveying a message to the church. By the time we finish with the book of Daniel, we will have an overview of God's working in this world from the Babylonian captivity to the end of the old covenant era and the beginning of the new.

We will also see the absolute need for the new covenant. That will become crystal clear. We also see in these visions the sovereignty of God and work over his creation. Man is not free to do as he pleases.

Man can come up and boast and we'll see that with the little horn. But God is sovereign over his creation. If you review the text for today, it's clear that God is in heaven orchestrating the events of each of the visions of the book of Daniel.

That should be a comfort to the church. Remember and listen to what Calvin said that these visions were given and Daniel wrote them down for us. You'll see later on, he didn't give it even to the people of his day.

These are specifically for us. Let's pray.