The Vision of Daniel 7

The Crazy Beast - The Vision of Daniel 7

TylerR 

Daniel 7 has the same message as Daniel 2 (see the article here). But, whereas Daniel 2 quickly sketches God’s victory over Babylon, Daniel 7 expands the message by way of more fantastic visions. It’s like how Genesis 2 expands on Genesis 1.

But as we sit comfortably—far removed from the anxious times in which God revealed these visions to Daniel—we can make a mistake. We can obsess over unimportant details and miss the larger point. God didn’t give us these incredible visions so we’d bog down in irrelevant questions. Obsessive focus on the identity of the four beasts might be interesting and profitable, but they’re not the point. God gave this vision to Daniel as hope for desperate people—so what’s the point of this vision?

Daniel’s angelic guide tells us plainly: “16So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 17The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. 18But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever” (Dan 7:17-18).

Daniel 7 easily divides into two sections; (a) the dream (Dan 7:1-14), and (b) the interpretation (Dan 7:15-28).

First, here is the cast of characters from the vision with my identification for each:

• Beast 1: the lion with wings. This is Babylon/Nebuchadnezzar.
• Beast 2: the lopsided bear. This is Persia—the nation in which Esther lived, and from which Cyrus let the Jewish people return home, etc.
• Beast 3: a leopard with four heads. This is Alexander the Great and the kingdoms belonging to the four generals who succeeded him after his death.
• Beast 4: iron teeth + ten horns + one little horn. This is the Roman Empire in three derivative phases; (a) the historical kingdom of Jesus’ day, (b) the interim period of nations which in some way derive from the historical Roman Empire, and (c) the kingdom of antichrist of the last days, which grows from among the nations from the interim phase.1
• Ancient of Days: God the Father.
• Son of Man: Jesus—this is his favorite way to describe Himself.

Second, forget the first three kingdoms. Daniel is simply not interested in the first three kingdoms in this vision—he only asks the angel for clarification about the fourth (Dan 7:19-20)—so they are not relevant. I believe the “four beasts” in Daniel 7 are parallel to the four-fold statue at Daniel 2, which means the first kingdom remains Babylon (Dan 2:36-28; cp. Dan 7:2-4, 17-18). A different vision addresses the second and third visions (Daniel 8), but they are not the issue here. So, this article will not address the first three kingdoms at all.

Third, focus on the fourth kingdom. The remainder of the article will do just that.

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