Christian Development

Daniel’s vision of Future Kingdoms

I just preached on Daniel 7:1-14 at my home church.  In this passage, Daniel is given a dream by God which pertains to the future kingdoms of the world, culminating in the Antichrist.  Because this is a passage which many people have a lot of questions about, I thought I would post the first half of my written notes from this passage for you here:

Introduction to the 2^nd half of the book of Daniel: Today in Daniel we have reached a dividing marker in the book from the historical narratives, the stories of the life of Daniel and his three friends, into the visions of Daniel given to him by God himself.  The rest of the book of Daniel will comprise these visions and they are markedly different from what has gone before.  YET, there are some similarities.  We will see consistency in how God gives these visions to Daniel which plays into his former experiences, some of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, etc…

The type of literature that we are now going to be reading is called apocalyptic.[1]  Apocalyptic literature is the type of literature of the book of Revelation. It is no secret that there are many themes in the book of Revelation that are similar to Daniel.  Daniel has rightly been called the Old Testament Revelation.  Apocalyptic literature presents the ending of the present age of conflict replacing it with an age of unparalleled peace.  It presents a violent end to our present human history with a coronation of God’s kingdom in conquering reign over the former ages.  It is the end of human corruption and the victory of God.  It also presents a sad, sad fact.  The fact of human rebellion against God.  It just won’t stop.  We sinful humans are going to rebel against God until the bitter end, all the way to the finish line, but we are not going to win. God is going to win decisively.  And, in this, we humans who have submitted to the rule of God through Jesus have nothing to fear.  We will be protected.  God protects his people.  Although human evil is concentrated increasingly in arrogant government, God will eventually win and wipe them out.

Apocalyptic literature is different from straight forward non-fiction writing.  History, a non-fiction story about the past, is usually rather straightforward.  The visions from Daniel 7-12 are not.  They are given in symbolic form.  That is to say, they represent real things, real people and real events, but they are given in symbol in order to concentrate on what the things really are rather than what they appear to be from the outside. This is a metaphor rich genre and it teaches us by analogy, it reveals while preserving mystery.  We immediately recognize we are reading apocalyptic literature through the following example:

“The sun will not shine and the moon will turn to blood and the stars will fall from the sky and the rest of the county will be partly cloudy.”  (Duguid-Reformed Expository Commentary) Do you see the sentence that did not fit? Of course you did.  You picked it out immediately.  Apocalyptic literature is large-scale world ending, universe shaking, cosmos interrupting events, not just predictions about the local weather.  So, take a deep breath, here we go.  We are now going to dive into this type of literature in scripture to see what our Lord God will show us through the visions that he gave to Daniel 2,500 years ago.

1)     Apocalyptic visions are symbols that get to the heart of the matter instead of the outer, physical appearances of things.

 2)     Apocalyptic visions in scripture, (Daniel, Revelation) are always about the end of the present physical age and the conquering victory of God in saving his people.

(v. 1) Earlier, during the first year of King Belshazzar’s reign in Babylon, Daniel had a dream and saw visions as he lay in his bed. He wrote down the dream, and this is what he saw.

By Daniel 6, we saw Daniel as a truly aged man, in his mid-eighties.  But here, we return to a slightly former state. This would have been about 552 BC.  Daniel at this time would have been about 70 years old.  The first thing I see about this is that God continues to reveal things to us throughout our lives.  We don’t just get all the good stuff when we are young. God continues to use and speak through Daniel all through his life, even giving him deep and complex dreams and visions, as we shall see, up through his eighties.  Sometimes the good stuff is reserved for those who grow in wisdom as they grow older.

We learn the context of this dream.  Daniel laying in bed is a reference to nighttime and to his sleep.  He was sleeping and God gave him something directly through his dreams. This is not your normal or average dream. This is a dream or a vision that means something important.  We also learn that Daniel writes down the dream.  Here we switch from the 3^rd person story telling about Daniel into the 1^st person accounts directly from Daniel’s thoughts.  This is his own journal, as it were. He wrote this dream down. In doing so, he was writing scripture. This is not a compilation or a combination over the generations of scribal additions and editorial combinations. This is one man’s experience through the Holy Spirit who revealed the future to him and it was written down for our edification.  This is holy scripture.  He wrote what he saw, and now we read it:

(v. 2) In my vision that night, I, Daniel, saw a great storm churning the surface of a great sea, with strong winds blowing from every direction. 3 Then four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others.

Great storm on the sea. If we do our best to return to the context of the original audience, the ancient middle eastern people who would have read this and to Daniel himself, the image of a great storm on the great sea is a virtual picture of unrest and horror in the very world itself.  (Many near eastern myths concentrate on the sea as chaos) and the Old Testament does at times use this same imagery.  However, the sea itself is directly pictured as the nations of the world, the goyim as they were called in Hebrew. The nations.

Isaiah 17:12-13 – 12 Listen! The armies of many nations roar like the roaring of the sea. Hear the thunder of the mighty forces as they rush forward like thundering waves. 13 But though they thunder like breakers on a beach, God will silence them, and they will run away. 

 Additionally, at the very end of time, we also read of monstrous beast arising “out of the sea” which probably pictures the gentile nations: Revelation 13:1 -1 Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God.

 **Picture of the four beasts coming up

 Next, we see everything is being churned up by the four winds, which is a reference to the entire earth.  The phrase is often used, the “four winds of heaven” or the “four corners of the earth.” These are very ancient metaphors with their roots deep in middle eastern imagery.  This is symbolic of the entire earth.  Something is going on which regards all peoples and all the earth.

Ok, why BEASTS?  Well, it’s easier. It preserves the mystery, but animals have always been the symbol of national power.  We Americans have an Eagle as our national symbol.  If “this means that” it is easier to do this than to show Daniel a picture of the man himself who would have ruled that nation, especially when the nation or empire went through more than one ruler. If you think about it, apart from being more in tune with how ancient people would have received symbols, it was also a pretty ingenious way to do things.  More spiritually to the point, we are now going to encounter a change in symbol from earlier in the book.  Back in Daniel chapter two, we read about the coming kingdoms of the earth like they were a great statue of a person, a great metal image.  Now, we are going to see these same kingdoms more from a purely spiritual point of view, in which they are portrayed as beasts.  Wild beasts that are amalgams or mutants, pieces put together mostly from known animals, but horrific, wild, terrible and nasty.  Except for the second kingdom, the bear, they are all a mix mash of different animal pieces unnaturally put together. They aren’t even just regular animals. They are mutants.  This is how God thinks of human kingdoms that arrogantly exalt themselves.  They are like a nightmarish combination of parts. We will speak more of this later today.

(v. 4) The first beast was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off, and it was left standing with its two hind feet on the ground, like a human being. And it was given a human mind.

Most scholars agree that this kingdom, made of a lion and an eagle represents the kingdom of Babylon.  In Jeremiah 49:19-22, Nebuchadnezzar and the forces under him are compared to both a lion and an eagle. It was almost at its end when this vision was given to Daniel. It had only about ten years left.  The emphasis upon its wings being torn off may be a reference to its soon defeat, but it is also surely a reference to what happened to Nebuchadnezzar later on in his life when he went insane and then was humbled and was saved. This is the only kingdom that has any sort of positive connotation on it, which only strengthens our belief that Nebuchadnezzar was truly saved. In this dream, to be given a human “Mind” is a very good thing.  (Later, the Antichrist will have what seem to be human eyes and a mouth, but this is different.  A human mind will connect Nebuchadnezzar to the human Son of Man later on, not to the Antichrist.)

This image also conforms to the dream Nebuchadnezzar had in Daniel 2, where he was represented as the first kingdom, the head of gold.  So here, his kingdom is first in that it was contemporary when Daniel had the dream.

 3)     The first beast, the Lion with eagles wings, is the Babylonian empire.

(v. 5) Then I saw a second beast, and it looked like a bear. It was rearing up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And I heard a voice saying to it, “Get up! Devour the flesh of many people!”

This is the only kingdom that is not an amalgam of different animal parts and that is strange because most scholars believe it represents the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, which was an amalgam of two people groups.  I am not arguing with the consensus, just pointing out an anomaly.  However, this voracious bear is raised up on one side, probably to represent the Persian dominance which came to characterize the empire the more powerful it became. It has three ribs in its mouth and this could represent Babylon, Lydia and Egypt, the three main areas it conquered, but we cannot be sure. Even though our versions of bears are now a little tame because of the image of a bear in our cartoon culture, in the ancient world, a bear was a forest predator not to be messed with. Syrian bears only died out in certain portions of the middle east as lately as about 100 years ago and they grew to up to about 550 pounds which is slightly less than a grizzly.  Additionally, the command to devour much flesh could be a reference to the fact that this kingdom was larger even than the Babylonian empire and was the single largest world empire up to this point in time.

 -This is the chest and ARMS-(2 parts) of silver in Daniel 2.  The silver Arms corresponding to two different empires combined into one piece.

4)     The second beast, the bear, is the Medo-Persian empire.

 (v. 6) Then the third of these strange beasts appeared, and it looked like a leopard. It had four bird’s

wings on its back, and it had four heads. Great authority was given to this beast.

 Many scholars believe this to be none other than the Greek empire headed by Alexander the Great.  We will cover this in greater detail when we move to chapter 8, but for now it is sufficient to mention that a leopard was considered the quickest predator in that area of the world.  Now, add to this four wings, which in ancient times was an indicator of speed, (see the wings on the feet and helmet of Hermes) and the standout element of this animal is speed and quickness to the kill.  This was indicative of Alexander’s great conquests.  His empire grew larger than even the Persian empire as he made it from Macedonia in Greece all the way into India itself.  However, the four heads probably symbolize that he was killed at only 32 and the empire was divided into four parts and given to four of his generals. Thus, the four heads.  The great authority was probably to signify the actual authority that Alexander possessed during his life, being one of the few people in world history to control that much of the land mass AND populace under one name.

-This is the torso of bronze according to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 2.

5)     The third beast, the leopard with four wings and four heads, is the Greek empire.

(v. 7) Then in my vision that night, I saw a fourth beast—terrifying, dreadful, and very strong. It devoured and crushed its victims with huge iron teeth and trampled their remains beneath its feet. It was different from any of the other beasts, and it had ten horns.

First, a marker of importance is introduced.  “Then in my vision that night” which lets us know, as it does later in verse 13, that something more important is coming.  So, this beast is important. This beast cannot even be described by either pointing to a human animal or by the combination of known animal body parts.  It is simply described by the feelings it causes Daniel to have.  Terrifying, Dreadful.  Look at the combination of words from this verse all strung together: Beast – terrifying, dreadful, strong, devoured, crushed victims, huge iron teeth, trampled remains, ten horns.

Now, something that often happens in prophecy, is that something very close to the receiver’s (Daniel) time is described and then God talks about something VERY far off. The concept is called prophetic fore-shortening.  It’s like all these things coming right around the corner are described and then something VERY far away, but that is STILL RELEVANT to the discussion, the end of the process, is described.  I wish I had more time to deal with it now, but it really does happen a fair amount in the Old Testament.  So, although I do believe that this “monster” is somehow describing the Roman empire that conquered the Greek empire, I believe God is mix-mashing future kingdoms into a gross monstrosity that is arising as a future kingdom, with “10 horns” many horns, so symbolize many different branches or many different rulers and that eventually, something else will come of all this. It is described as different from the other beasts because it really is different, for out of this kingdom, the anti-Christ is going to arise. Now, this is when prophecy buffs start to come out of the woodwork and think about every possible combination of the ancient Roman empire and how that transitioned into the European union and where America fits in and all that stuff. And to that I say, “WHOA!!”  I don’t even think that is what is being communicated by this passage, perhaps other biblical passages make that connection, but I think the basic thrust of this one is that there is coming a future “monster” of a kingdom that is a gross monstrosity and

indescribable compared to the kingdoms that have gone before it.  Indeed, in the book of Revelation, the beast that arises to challenge the Lord at the end of time has elements of all the kingdoms that have gone before it, the very ones described in Daniel.  Remember that in biblical imagery, a horn symbolizes strength, authority and honor.  Look with me at that passage:

Revelation 13:1-2 –  1 Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. 2 This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion! And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority.

Do you see the elements of the animals we have already talked about incorporated into this beast? Of course you do.  So, I think in Daniel, the description of this beast is not even so much to describe the Roman empire as to prophetically foreshorten the last kingdom that will be on display when Jesus Christ comes again to judge the earth.  And from the book of Revelation, we know that kingdom will truly be a BEAST of a kingdom, arrogantly rising to fight against God himself.  That is why this beast in Daniel has more focus on the antichrist, and much, much less on the Roman aspect of things than most prophecy people give credence to.

One thing that is important to note here also is that although many people think we are on a road of progress because of technology and innovation and globalization, in fact, the opposite is true.  Technology is great, but usually, the great things we invent as humans are put to more evil purposes. We warp and mutate everything for power and control.  In this vision, the kingdoms of the earth culminate in this awful beast, which is worse than anything that has come before it.  This is regress, not progress.

Lastly, I want to point out that the human kingdoms of this earth are represented by beasts, but there is an organization that looks different from this. In the New Testament, Paul calls the church the body of the Lord.  We are part of something that looks much different. Jesus told his disciples that he is the vine and we are the branches.  We are part of a living organism in Christ.  Unfortunately, people on this earth are either associated with one or the other, you cannot have it both ways.  Now, in setting up this distinction between the church and human government, I do not mean to say that the church here on the earth looks spotless or in distinction from human kingdoms is run perfectly.  Indeed, those of us who have been Christians for some time can attest that a lot of mess happens in the church.  But, it is as Martin Luther once said of the church, “The human church is a lot like the way it must have been in Noah’s Ark.  It was very smelly in there at times, but it was a lot better to be in there than outside.”

Along with that, I must say that in distinction from the human systems of government, leaders in the church must not be territorial by nature with those that also name the name of Jesus.  We serve a different leader than a human master who accumulates power for himself. Therefore, the leaders of the church must constantly be in it for our master Jesus and not for an earthly kingdom or piece of the pie. We are all slaves of Jesus Christ, not masters of our own domain.  Any pastor who jealously territorializes against other, truly Christian churches is both petty and blinded to his own role in the kingdom.  (This is not said about protecting the sheep from wolves or false movements. This is said in regard to the brotherhood that exists among ALL churches who belong to Christ.)

(v. 8) As I was looking at the horns, suddenly another small horn appeared among them. Three of the first horns were torn out by the roots to make room for it. This little horn had eyes like human eyes and a mouth that was boasting arrogantly.

 As Daniel was watching these numerous horns (presumably on the head of the beast) another horn “sprouted” up.  It was so ambitious that it took up room that three others had made for themselves.  This is a sign of this little horns ambition and quest for power.  In saying that the little horn eyes “like” human eyes and a mouth that was boasting the meaning is given that he has greater ambition “seeing” what a beast cannot, or that he understands more than just the other beasts. This could be a reference to the Satanic inspiration of this leader, this little horn.  In line with this is the mouth that is boasting arrogantly, which is indicative of Satan himself, whose pride got him kicked out of the heavenly court.  We will spend more of next week talking about the Antichrist, so I am not going to spend any more real-time on him now.

6)     The fourth beast, the monster with ten horns and a little horn, is the accumulation of human kingdoms that will eventually produce the Antichrist.  This is sometimes pictured as the Roman empire, but don’t focus too much on that. 

February 20, 2012 Posted by matttague | The Bible | Daniel 7, Prophecy | Leave a Comment