Episode 164: Daniel 7:1-28 The Certainty of the Future

We worked our way through the vision of Daniel in chapter 7. This is the last part of the book written in Aramaic. This simply points to how this vision was intended to be widely available to the people of the day, even those they lived among in exile. Daniel has a dream of 4 beasts. This dream seems to have many parallels to Nebuchadnezzar’s first dream of the statue with 4 sections. It starts with the lion that has eagle’s wings. This beast has its wings ripped off and it is given the mind of a man and stands on 2 feet. In a variety of ways this points to Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom. This beast is followed by a bear with ribs in its mouth. It has one side larger than the other. This is a reference to the kingdom of the Medes and Persians. The Persians were stronger than the Medes which explains the different sizes of the bear sides. After this there arose a leopard with 4 heads. The leopard most likely points to Alexander the great who conquered the known world swiftly and died young. His kingdom was divided between four generals of his army which gives a good reason he had 4 heads. The final beast was unlike anything Daniel had ever seen. It had teeth of iron and claws of bronze. It had ten horns and another horn came up and three of the horns fell before it. This new horn had eyes and a mouth which spoke great things. This horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them until the ancient of days came in judgment. This is a vision of devastation as these kingdoms act like beast bringing pain and suffering to many. But this is also a reminder as well of how God will bring justice, which culminates in the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom.