Daniel’s Vision of Beasts and Judgments.
Today, Pastor Michael is continuing his study on Daniel. Last week he covered Daniels dreams from Chapter 7 with the four fantastic beasts, that represented four world empires. He only lived to see two of them: Babylon and Persian but Greece and Rome were coming down the line.
Why would God bother to enshrine these empires in prophesy? These four world empires played a huge part in getting the story of Jesus out to the worl...
Daniel’s Vision of Beasts and Judgments.
Today, Pastor Michael is continuing his study on Daniel. Last week he covered Daniels dreams from Chapter 7 with the four fantastic beasts, that represented four world empires. He only lived to see two of them: Babylon and Persian but Greece and Rome were coming down the line.
Why would God bother to enshrine these empires in prophesy? These four world empires played a huge part in getting the story of Jesus out to the world.
Babylon ensured that the Jews would take the Lord seriously and never turn back to idols. The Persian empire gave them a fresh start in the promised land. Greece allowed a language that would be widely spoken across the civilized world.
Rome owned practically everything. It was safe to travel and they built roads and infrastructure. We now have a world where the good news of Jesus could be spread across the world.
Salvation and renewal made it across the world because of these four civilizations. God orchestrated the flow of human history so that we could get to know him through his Son.
So we pick up the story with the fourth beast, representing Rome. There are ten horns on this beast and a little horn came up amongst the other horns and it had eyes and a mouth and was actually speaking!
This represents another king and kingdom, one far worse that Rome.
Daniel 7:8 (ESV Study Bible Notes) Even more surprisingly, another small horn came up among the horns, uprooting three of the 10 others. This horn had eyes and a mouth that spoke arrogantly. If this vision corresponds to the statue in ch. 2, then it would represent the Roman Empire and emphasize its ruthlessness. The Roman Empire was significantly different than the earlier empires, for it far surpassed them in power, longevity, and influence. The world had never before seen anything like it. The 10 horns could emphasize the extreme power of this empire (five times the normal number of two horns), or more likely it signifies 10 rulers or kingdoms (cf. Dan. 7:24; from Julius Caesar to Domitian there are actually 12 Caesars; but two reigned for only a few months). The little horn was significantly different than the others, for it had teeth of iron, claws of bronze, and eyes like the eyes of a man. It started “little” but grew up to overpower three of the other horns. Some scholars understand this horn to refer to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but many have understood it to refer to the Antichrist.
Further along, we start seeing the Lord on His throne. His hair is white, symbolizing wisdom and his clothes also are white, repressing purity. He has a thousand thousand (likely how Daniel saw an uncountable number) serving him, likely the angels standing before him. This is where the Lord judges the beasts.
Daniel 7:9-10 (ESV Study Bible Notes) The scene depicts in powerful imagery a judge who has the wisdom to sort out right from wrong, the purity to persistently choose the right, and the power to enforce his judgments. Even though the beast with the boastful horn continued to mouth defiance at the heavenly court, it was swiftly slain and its body thrown into the fire. 7:10 Ten thousand times ten thousand is meant as a picture of an innumerable multitude, representing not one kingdom but all the kingdoms of the earth standing before God (cf. Rev. 5:11). The books that were opened represent God’s records of the deeds of those on the earth (cf. Dan. 12:1; Luke 10:20; Rev. 20:12, which echo this passage).
The Coming of the Son of Man. After the beasts were judged and the fourth beast slain, Daniel’s vision turns to the coming of the Son of Man.
(ESV Study Bible Notes) 7:13–14 The Coming of the Son of Man. The one like a son of man combines in one person both human and divine traits. Elsewhere, this phrase “son of man” often distinguishes mere human beings from God (e.g., Ps. 8:4; Ezek. 2:1). However, this son of man seems also greater than any mere human, for to “come on the clouds” is a clear symbol of divine authority (cf. Ps. 104:3; Isa. 19:1). This “son of man” is given dominion and glory and a kingdom (Dan. 7:14; cf. ESV footnote at v. 27; this is parallel to God’s dominion, 4:34), which at present resides in the hands of human kings such as Nebuchadnezzar (cf. 5:18). But he is far greater than Nebuchadnezzar, because he will rule over the entire world forever: all peoples, nations, and languages will serve (or worship) him, and his dominion . . . shall not pass away (7:14). Thus, he must be much more than a personified representative of Israel (cf. vv. 18, 27), and certainly more than a mere angel, for no created being would have the right to rule the entire world forever. Jesus claims he will fulfill this role (cf. Mark 14:61–62), and it is ultimately fulfilled in Rev. 19:11–16 when Jesus comes at the end of the age to judge and rule the nations. Jesus refers to himself as “son of man” more than any other title (see notes on Matt. 8:20; John 1:51). This title was used in the OT in two different ways, first, to refer to a mere human being (see esp. Ezekiel, where it is used over 90 times referring to Ezekiel), and second, to refer to the son of man in Dan. 7:13, who is a divine being dwelling in heaven with the Ancient of Days. When people heard Jesus use the term “son of man” for himself, they had to decide which type of “son of man” he was. Technically he was both, but it took faith to believe he was like the “son of man” in Daniel. At the end of Jesus’ ministry, when he claimed to be this heavenly “son of man” predicted in Daniel’s vision, his opponents said he had committed blasphemy (see notes on Matt. 8:20; 24:30; 26:64).
The summary of all of this is, it’s a fantastical, hard-to-fathom story of Daniel’s vision of beasts and the Lord on His throne and judging these beasts (and therefore, the kingdoms they represent). Yet it all is to open up the door to the entry of the Son of Man. Jesus, our Lord.
“Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
Verses can be found today in Daniel, Chapter 7: 7-28.
