Chapter 7
As has already been suggested, while there are close similarities between chapter 2 and chapter 7 of this prophecy, there are also wide differences which will require careful study. This vision was given to Daniel in the first year that Belshazzar became king, which would be getting well advanced into the seventy years’ captivity. How long Belshazzar reigned we are not told. Daniel’s next vision, in chapter 8, was given him in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar.
Daniel saw four great beasts arising out of the sea of nations, and each was quite different from the other three. The first was a lion with eagle’s wings, and as he looked the wings were plucked off, the lion was made to stand upright like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. In this beast’s career there are evidently two stages: the first was the Assyrian, and the second was the Babylonian phase. The cruelty of the Assyrians towards their captives was well known. A favourite method was to put a hook through the lower lip. When pulled with a cord or chain the pain is excruciating. God says of the latter day Assyrian “I will put my hook in thy jaw”. Assyria was conquered by Babylon, who at once proved much more humane in their treatment of their captives. This is shewn in the vision by the lion standing up like a man and a man’s heart being given unto it.
A lion is a beast of prey. An eagle is a bird of prey, and the wings on the back of the lion could refer to the speed of the conquests —the “bird of prey” conquests of Babylon, for they certainly were carried out very rapidly. Babylon fell to Persia in 538 B.C., which power is represented by a bear raised up on one side, with three ribs in the mouth of it. The higher side of the bear represents the Persian half of the Medo-Persian empire. For the three ribs various explanations are suggested. One is, seeing there were three presidents, the ribs represent the areas over which the presidents exercised control. Another idea is that the ribs represent the three presidents themselves. A third idea is that the three ribs represent the three provinces of Babylon, Lydia and Egypt. Medo-Persia continued until overthrown by Alexander the Macedonian in the battle of Arbela in 331 B.C.
In Daniel 7 the third beast is a leopard with four heads and four wings. In chapter 8 more details are given under the figure of a he-goat with initially a “notable horn” in its forehead, which was broken and in place of which four horns grew up, making it identical with chapter 7. The “notable horn” was Alexander whose progress was truly meteoric. He died in Babylon when he was only 33 years old, and four of his generals, Ptolemy, Cassander, Lysimachus and Seleucus divided the empire between them. Ptolemy took Egypt and thereby became the king of the south of later years. Seleucus took Syria and the northern portions, and thereby became the king of the north of Daniel 11. The four wings can well represent the speed with which Alexander moved. In less than eight years he marched his army over 5,000 miles, in victorious progress. The power of Greece lasted from 331 B.C., when Persia was overthrown, until 168 B.C. when King Perseus of Macedonia was defeated by the Romans at Pydna.
Then in Daniel 7:7 we are given details of the fourth beast which was dreadful and terrible. (While Daniel 2 shews the kingdoms of men to Nebuchadnezzar as something resplendent, when shewn to a man of God in Daniel 7 they are fittingly shewn for what they are, beasts and nothing more). This fourth beast represents the empire of Rome. Rome was founded in 753 B.C. and gradually extended its power and dominion until it was greater than any of the preceding three empires. It extended as far as Persia on the east and Britian on the west. Initially its capital was Rome, but Constantine moved the capital to Constantinople in 325 A.D., thereby creating conditions represented by the two legs of the image. Many details of this iron power are given in Daniel 7, and after the first description of it in vv.7 and 8, then the vision merges into a vision of the judgement seat of the Lord Jesus Christ in vv.9-14. Then an interpretation of the vision is given in vv.17 to the end.
Many books have been written on this fourth beast, so to condense the explanation of the vision into a few lines is not easy. Let us try.
Exceeding strong. The fourth beast had “great iron teeth”. Iron is easily the strongest of the four metals gold, silver, brass and iron. This is especially the case when alloyed with carbon to produce steel, or with nickel, chrome, tungsten etc. to produce alloy steels. Without these alloy steels modern developments would have been quite impossible. Rome was ruthless in her conquests, and good roads were made all over the empire so that the Roman soldiers could be moved rapidly wherever they might be needed.
When first seen, this dreadful beast had ten horns, but as Daniel looked an eleventh horn sprang up and three of the ten horns fell before it. This eleventh horn finds its fulfilment in the Papacy. Originally the church in Rome was only equal to those at Jerusalem. Antioch and Alexandria, but gradually it began to assume superiority over all the others and finally, about 606/10, its head achieved the title of “Universal Bishop”. In addition to ecclesiastical developments, the Papacy also succeeded in getting a lot of temporal power, and the Middle Ages are a record of one long struggle between the emperor and the pope. To achieve its ends the Papacy subdued the three horns of the Lombards, Vandals and Ostrogoths. When decline set in, the Roman empire was divided up amongst the various Barbarian tribes who invaded the empire as it grew weaker. From the time of 478 A.D. onwards there were always approximately ten of these kingdoms.
From the arrangement of chapter 7 it is quite clear that the Lord Jesus returns to the earth in the closing phases of the fourth beast. Jesus said all judgement was committed unto him, so we can only conclude that he is the one referred to as “the ancient of days”, especially when we note the similarity of the language of verse 9 and Rev. 1:13-15. Vv. 9-14 give a picture of the judgement seat of Christ. The one “like the son of man” is the saints. (Note. To attain the rewards held out in this chapter, the saints will have to be “like” the son of man in character. If no “likeness” can be discerned then rejection must follow). Countless multitudes of angels attend the Lord Jesus. Many will have been employed in “gathering the elect from the four corners of the earth”. Then “the judgement was set”. The books were opened. The unworthy will have their names “blotted out” of the book of life. The reward of the faithful is “There was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve and obey him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed”. This “him” to whom this power was given can be no other than the glorified saints, for v.18 says “The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even for ever and ever”. V.22 says “… the ancient of days came, and judgement was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom”, and the matter is finalised in v.27, “… and the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him”. It is evident. then. that the ancient of days is the Lord Jesus, and the one “like the son of man” is finally the glorified body of the saints.
Before that glorious consummation is reached, much work will have to be done. The little horn power will be particularly antagonistic to the Lord Jesus. During the Middle Ages the little horn abundantly fulfilled what was foretold in v. 25, “… speak great swelling words against the Most High… shall wear out the saints of the Most High”. The number that the Papacy has put to death is literally millions. Both by use of the “Inquisition” but also without it, the persecution of those who insisted on worshipping God as God wanted them to, and not as the Papacy decreed, has been cruel, ferocious and inhuman. Torture of the worst kind has been used, and neither age nor sex have been respected. The reading of God’s word has been forbidden and all copies that could be seized were burnt. But as v.25 says, a time limit was set, and God’s chronology was accurately fulfilled and it would appear that the power of the Papacy to persecute has gone forever (and we sincerely hope so!) “The judgement shall sit, and shall take away his dominion to consume and destroy it to the end…” Writers like Grattan Guinness have shewn in great detail how every item of this persecuting power has been fulfilled. This is all shewn in much greater detail in the book of Revelation, especially in chapters 17 and 18.
The fourth beast has to be utterly destroyed — “his body given to the burning flame” —but the other three beasts are allowed to continue “for a season and a time”. Just how long this is we do not know. What it implies is that when God’s kingdom is established, while “all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him”, their individual nationalities will not be immediately destroyed, but rather will gradually fade out as the millennium progresses.
In the study of the later chapters we shall have to deal more with the time periods which occur in Daniel. V.25 refers to “time, times and dividing of times”. A “time” was 360 days, and on a day for a year basis represents 360 years. 3 1/2 times, then, represents a period of 1260 years, which is one half of 7 times or 2520 years. Singularly all Daniel’s time periods — 1260, 1290, 1335, 2300, 2520, are sol lunar periods, and in applying them both solar years and lunar years have to be considered. The time for the moon to circuit the earth is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 3 seconds. A Solar year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 49 seconds. A lunar year is 12 lunations and is 10 days 21 hours shorter that a solar year.
Because of the ‘awkwardness’ of the above figures, the compilation of a calendar is a very difficult matter. Originally there were ten months and hence our present names —
September should be the 7th month
October should be the 8th month
November should be the 9th month
December should be the 10th month,
if the meaning of the words indicates the position in the calendar.
Julius Caesar realised the calendar was out of step with the seasons and to correct it a calendar of 12 months was created, which ran roughly 31-30–31-30 days apart from February — normally 28 days, but every fourth year it had 29 days. This was called the Caesarian Calendar. In 1500 years, however, Pope Gregory realised the calendar was again out of step with the seasons, so his mathematicians corrected the Caesarian Calendar. Their correction was an extra day in February except at the end of the century. If the number was divisible by four, then it was a leap year. If not divisible by four, then no leap year. 1900 was not a leap year. 2000 will be. This is called the Gregorian Calendar and is accurate for 30,000 years. Why all this preamble? To point out that the numbers 1260-2520 all contain a complete number of solar years but also a complete number of lunar years, so we can only conclude they are of divine origin, for it is only of recent years that man has realised this important fact. Let us also remember that until 1917 the Mohametan nations used the lunar calendar. Singularly, in 1917 they changed to the solar reckoning, but 1917 was the Mohametan year 1335, which fact speaks for itself.
V.9 says “the thrones were cast down”. This does not mean the casting down and overthrowing of the thrones of the kingdoms of men. The scene is an eastern one. The “thrones” were the divan cushions on which they sat, or reclined, and describes the judgement scene of the Lord Jesus at the end of Gentile times when he returns to earth. The attendant angels are there in thousands. “The books were opened”. We take this to be a figurative statement for we cannot imagine the Most High requires to have a “book” to record the deeds of those responsible to the judgement seat. On the other hand it is a figure which runs all the way through Scripture, commencing with the “book of life” at the foundation of the world, and concluding with the Book of Revelation.
Daniel The Prophet – (Part 3)