| Subject: Dan. Chap. 7 vss 1-7 (part 1) post 34 |
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Hillbilly
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Date Posted: 18:16:19 01/01/10 Fri
Daniel 7:1-7 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. 2 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. 3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. 4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. 5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. 6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. 7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
As we come to chapter 7 we see a change in the emphasis of the Book of Daniel. The first 6 chapters were more about Daniel's life and that if his companions than prophecy. There were some great prophecies in the first 6 chapters but they were interwoven with Daniel's life and the respect he gained from the kings he served. The last 6 chapters are more directly aimed at the events that will come on the earth in these end times.
The chapter opens with a dream that Daniel was given in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar. It is night and Daniel is on his bed. Night visions are prominent in Daniel and shows how God often speaks to His people in dreams. Daniel first notices the 4 winds of heaven (Rev. 7:1) striving on the "great sea". There are 13 verses in the bible that mention the great sea and every one pertains to the Mediterranean Sea. All the "action" then we can expect to be centered in this area. Many say the "great sea" is just a reference to the multitude of people and nations (Rev. 17:15) and it could be but usually the great sea will mean the Mediterranean. As for these nations rising up from around the Mediterranean this would eliminate Media/Persia as well as Babylon as neither border the Mediterranean. Verse 17 of this chapter only mentions them coming up out of the earth.
This time element of verse 1 (the first year of Belshazzar) is very important to understanding the 4 beasts that are mentioned. As we proceed we will see that these beasts represent kings and thus kingdoms in the progression of history. Remembering that Daniel is in the time of the last king of the Babylonian empire we need to skip ahead in chapter 7. and see what the angel told Daniel concerning his dream. In Daniel7:17 we read; "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth." This is very important. Almost every commentary I have read on the Book of Daniel makes the first beast the king of Babylon. It will not work. If Belshazzar is ruling at the time of Daniel's dream and the angel tells him that the four beasts shall arise then you know they are future. Belshazzar was killed and the Medes and the Persians took over the kingdom the very night he was slain. There were no more Babylonian kings after Belshazzar.
As we proceed I am going to state that I believe the prophecy is twofold. I believe it applies to the kingdoms after Babylon up to and including the birth and life of Christ. Secondly and most importantly I believe it is more directly aimed at the kingdoms after the kingdom rule that Jesus lived and died under which would have been Rome. According to the wording it must be aimed at the end times and the kingdoms after Rome until the return of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This will make the last kingdom before the return the kingdom of the anti-Christ.
The reason I make it twofold is that I believe that when Jesus came the first time he offered the fulfillment of the promise of the kingdom to Israel at that time. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday He did so as a king. Notice this passage in Matthew: Matthew21:1-5 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, 2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. 3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. 4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
Had Israel accepted their king then the kingdom mentioned in this chapter would have commenced after the crucifixion. I say after the crucifixion because Jesus had to die for the sins of the world according to the prophecies in the Old Testament. (see Isaiah chapter 53 as an example)
While considering the implications of this we need to go back and refresh our memory about the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in chapter 2. The kingdoms were Babylon, Media/Persia, Greece and then Rome. The destruction of the last kingdom of the statue was to usher in the everlasting kingdom. It was to stand until the "stone kingdom" destroyed all the kingdoms of the statue and the stone kingdom was to last forever. The implication of this is that every kingdom after Jesus that is mentioned in the prophecy must come out of the Roman empire in order for scripture to be true. We must then limit ourselves to the scope of the Roman Empire at it's greatest extent and the nations now standing that it once encompassed. Having said all this I am also going to state that the identity of these "beasts" cannot be identified with certainty. What I am going to lay out for you is nothing more that a guess based on what the Bible says and the history of the area in view. The world view of history from the standpoint of the Bible and thus God is Palestine. The royal land grant given to Abraham and his descendants. When dealing with these things all directions given in the Bible will be from the center of the world as far as God is concerned. The center of the world in His eyes is Jerusalem and always will be. That is where it all started and that is where it will all end. In subsequent chapters dealing with the direction that armies will come from if it says north the direction will be reckoned north of Jerusalem. This will hold true for south, east and west.
With these thoughts in mind we will now look at the specific "beasts" mentioned.
"The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings". Since Media/Persia conquered Babylon we must look here for the first kingdom leading up to the fulfillment of the prophecy up through the first coming of Jesus Christ. The description is that it was a lion with eagle's wings. The lion stood as a man on it's two hind legs and a man's heart was given unto it. The lion was prominent in the heraldry of the Persian empire and indeed you can find a winged lion in it's heraldry. I would say then that the 1st application would be to Media/Persia, an alliance that brought about the return of the Jews to Israel under Cyrus the Great of this empire. Since we are looking at prophecy with dual application we should expect to find a similar setup with the first beast after the fall of the empire which was in power at the first coming of Jesus.
Using the criteria above we will look for an empire that brought about the re-establishment of Israel after the dispersion in 70 A.D. The time period for the rise of all the prophecies in Daniel was almost 600 years before Christ. The image in chapter 2 started it and the rejection of the Messiah shortly after He resurrection ended it as far as the first application of the prophecies. Applying all that is known in the first application to the second we need to find a dual "empire" that will closely resemble the first with Media/Persia. Remember it is going to need to tie in to the return of the Jews to their homeland. The only possibility I see is with Great Britain and the USA. Great Britain is the lion and the Eagle's wings would be the USA. (The U.S. came out of Great Britain which was part of the Roman Empire) The British Lion is well known as a symbol in their heraldry and of course the eagle is the symbol of the U.S. gracing it's seal.
England would fit the time era in the 600 year time slot and her part in restoring Israel is well known. Her co-nation of course has been the USA ever since things were patched up between us after the war of 1812. It was England's Balfour Declaration and the combined might of the U.S. and England that assured Israel's survival after her return. 1948 is the key year as her nationhood was declared in that year and the U.S. was the first nation to recognize Israel. Immediate warfare was Israel's fate just as it was in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah when the Jews returned from their captivity in Babylon.
Daniel beheld this first beast as it's "wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it." If the interpretation of the wings being the U.S. is correct then we are in trouble for sure. We would say "he got his wings clipped". We have been soaring for a while but we are in the process of being brought down. What was left was the beast standing on it's hind legs as a man with a man's heart given unto it. It no longer had the heart of a beast but the Bible is clear the heart of a man is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9)
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