Dan 7:2-7 | KingComments | STEP | Daniel tells us that in his vision he saw four great beasts coming up from the great sea. The great sea represents the turbulent mass of the nations ( ). This picture shows that out of the sea of nations at that time, four world empires come up successively. The four winds indicate the spiritual powers behind this turbulence. They are the spiritual powers in the heavenly places. The following verses describe the development of the four empires. Not many words are devoted to the first three empires. The fourth realm in contrast is described in detail.

‏ Daniel 7:2-7

The Origin of the Beasts

Daniel tells us that in his vision he saw four great beasts coming up from the great sea. The great sea represents the turbulent mass of the nations (Isa 17:12). This picture shows that out of the sea of nations at that time, four world empires come up successively. The four winds indicate the spiritual powers behind this turbulence. They are the spiritual powers in the heavenly places.

The following verses describe the development of the four empires. Not many words are devoted to the first three empires. The fourth realm in contrast is described in detail.

The First Three Beasts

The first empire appears in the form of a lion. This represents the Babylonian empire (Jer 50:17 ; Jer 4:6-7 ; 13 ; Jer 49:19 ; 22). The lion has wings of an eagle. This points to the enormous speed with which the beast attacks its prey. But these wings are also plucked. The rapid expansion of power is coming to an end. The fact that this empire is then compared with a human being shows that this empire is reduced to its true meaning. It is over with all power.

The second empire appears in the form of a bear. This represents the Medo-Persian empire. The two components of this empire is indicated by the peculiarity that “it was raised up on one side”. That means that there is a predominant side in this two-party kingdom. These are the Persians. It is the Persian Cyrus who through his entire empire circulated a proclamation regarding the return of the Jews to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1). The three ribs that the bear has in its mouth may be seen in three directions of the wind and the areas that lie there that are captured by the Medes and Persians (Dan 8:4). This empire has an insatiable hunger for more conquests. It is urged to do so by a power from outside.

The third empire is the Greek-Macedonian empire and appears in the form of a leopard. A leopard is an extraordinarily fast beast. It symbolizes the speed with which the emperor of the Greek-Macedonian empire, Alexander the Great, overwhelmed the previous empire. His government lasted only thirteen years, from 336-323 BC, but in that short time he conquered the entire Medo-Persian empire and many more outside. He is only thirty-three years old when he dies.

This leopard has four wings and four heads. This seems to indicate that Alexander was able to carry out his quick conquests thanks to the support of his four generals (four wings). After his death these four generals divide his empire between each other. The four heads represent these generals as the rulers who each gain authority over a quarter of the empire. Alexander is the head of the empire himself. Power is given to him.

The Fourth Beast

Finally, the fourth empire appears in the form of a terrifying beast. This characteristic of frightfulness is also mentioned in connection with the iron of the statue (Dan 2:31). This beast has no name. It has no resemblance to any of the beasts created by God. Daniel can only describe it. The description gives the impression that we are dealing with a machine that devours everything within its reach without any compassion.

It resembles a beast that only occurs in nightmares, but to which unscrupulous people today give shape in various computer games. All those who seek their amusement in games in which a monster swallows up and crushes everything, will less and less recognize the terrifying character of the monster that will appear on the world stage soon.

The monster has ten horns, which indicates that the empire consists of ten parts. The first empire is a unity, the second empire consists of two parts and the third empire is divided into four parts. However, the difference between the first three empires and the fourth empire is not only numerical. The difference is, above all, that this fourth empire in its history never consisted of ten parts, as in the previous empires there is unity or they consist of two or four parts. But as we have already seen in Daniel 2, that event will become a fact in the (near) future. We see the signs of it in the unification of Europe.

Daniel’s attention is drawn by the horns. As he looks closely at them, he sees how, at the expense of three horns, an eleventh, little one, elevates himself above all the horns. As a special feature of this little horn he notes that it represents a human being. He perceives eyes as human eyes and a mouth full of boasting. The person portrayed in this horn is extremely astute and also very presumptuous in his use of language, particularly blaming God, Christ, and the believers.