Daniel Chapter 7 Verses 13-14

13 I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

At the end of this remarkable judgment scene, Daniel sees “one like a son of man” come to the Ancient of Days to be presented before him.

This son of man is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and in fact this is where the Messianic title “the Son of Man” came from. Why the Son of Man? Jesus was saying that he was the son of man who was mentioned in Daniel 7! He was taking a Messianic title familiar to every Jew and applying it to himself.

Jesus as the representative of his people comes to receive the kingdom. What does this mean?

In verse 22 and 27, it is the saints who receive the kingdom.

Like we mentioned in our study of Revelation, Jesus did not receive something here that he did not already have.

This part of the judgment scene depicts a public reaffirmation of something that had been true all along. God has removed and judged a great enemy of his people and he wants everyone to be aware of the outcome.

In Revelation 1:9, John made it very clear that the kingdom had been established. Yet in Revelation 12:10 we read that “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.” What is meant by this? It is simply a public reaffirmation and display of what was already true!

Is it still appropriate to pray “Thy kingdom come” as the apostles’ were instructed to do in the Lord’s prayer? Yes. Although the kingdom was established on the Day of Pentecost after the Lord’s ascension, God’s kingdom continues to come anytime and anywhere the Lord and his church are victorious over their enemies.

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Daniel Chapter 7 Verses 11-12

11 I looked then because of the sound of the great words which the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. 12 As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

The judgment of the court is that the fourth beast be destroyed, which is thus pictured in verse 11. The beast is burned with fire and utterly destroyed.

The other three beasts have lost their power (their dominion was taken away), but they are pictured as still being around waiting to hear their fate as well.

These three beasts lived on in the fourth beast. They had the same ungodly ways and aims.

We saw this in chapter 2, where all four kingdoms were denoted by a single giant statue.

What did they have in common? They were all earthly kingdoms that were trying to take the place of or destroy the one true heavenly kingdom of God.

We also see this in John’s description of Rome found in Revelation 13.

Revelation 13:1-2 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon its horns and a blasphemous name upon its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.

In Revelation 13, the beast (Rome) is like a leopard, a bear, and a lion.

Where have we seen these three animals before?

In Daniel 7, we just saw a lion, a bear, and a leopard (in that order).

In Revelation, John mentions a leopard, a bear, and a lion (in the reverse order).

Daniel and John are both looking at the same three kingdoms, but Daniel is looking FORWARD through time whereas John is looking BACKWARD through time!

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Daniel Chapter 7 Verses 9-10

9 As I looked, thrones were placed and one that was ancient of days took his seat; his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. 10 A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.

Here we have a judgment scene in which the ancient of days sits at the head of an enormous court in which the books are opened and judgment in rendered.

Which judgment does this refer to? There are many different judgments in the Bible.

The two leading candidates are the judgment of Rome and the judgment of the world at the end of time. Which choice fits better with the context? Clearly the judgment of Rome does.

This is the judgment of the fourth beast, and the fourth beast is Rome.

Verse 11 tells us that after this judgment the fourth beast is slain and burned with fire.

Verses 21–22 tell us that this judgment was against the little horn who was waging war against the saints.

Verse 26 tells us that this court would take the dominion away from the little horn.

Revelation 20 contains another great judgment scene similar to what we see here. (It also contains thrones, books, and fire.)

John said that the judgment in Revelation 20 would come to pass soon after the book was written. (Revelation 1:1;1:3;10:6;22:6;22:10)

Revelation was written during the Roman persecution.

Thus, the context suggests that the judgment scene in Revelation 20 also applies to the judgment of the fourth beast from Daniel 7 –the Roman empire.

Thus, I believe that the judgment scene in Daniel 7 and the judgment scene in Revelation 20 both apply to the same judgment – the judgment of Rome.

Did Rome fall in the first century? Absolutely no. Was Rome judged and sentenced by God during the first century? Absolutely yes!

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Daniel Chapter 7 Verse 8

8 I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

From among the ten horns arises an eleventh horn. This little horn (which we will later discover denotes an eleventh king) comes up only after three of the ten horns are plucked up.

Who is this little horn? We will discover that when we get to verses 24 and 25.

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Daniel Chapter 7 Verse 7

7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

This fourth beast is Rome, which in chapter 2 was represented by the legs and feet of iron and clay on the giant statue.

Like Rome this beast is terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong. And like Rome, it is different from the beasts that came before it.

This beast has ten horns, which we will discover in verse 24 denote 10 kings. (We will see which kings they are when we get to verse 24.)

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Daniel Chapter 7 Verse 6

6 After this I looked, and lo, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back; and the beast had four heads; and dominion was given to it.

This third beast represents Greece, which in chapter 2 was denoted by the belly and thighs of brass on the giant statue.

This beast is a leopard, which like Greece, moved very fast.

This beast has four wings and four heads. Recall that after the death of Alexander, Greece was split into four pieces ruled by his four generals.

Note 1: This is an example where it seems most logical to interpret a number literally rather than figuratively even though the number appears in an apocalyptic section.

Note 2: Here in Daniel 7:6 Greece is depicted as a beast with four heads. Later in Daniel 8:8 Greece will be depicted as a goat with four horns. In Daniel 8:21–22 we will find out that those horns denote kings or kingdoms. Thus, heads and horns are sometimes used to denote the same thing – kings or their kingdoms. (This point will be useful to remember as we continue.)

The liberals would have us believe that this divided third kingdom is Persia, but Persia remained unified until its end when Alexander the Great conquered it. Who is mistaken? Daniel or his critics? I wonder…

The arrogance of these liberal critics is unbounded. Instead of admitting that they are mistaken, they insist that Daniel must have mistakenly thought that Persia would be split into four pieces!