In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head upon his bed then he wrote the dream; he told the sum of the matters.
A date, a dream, and a written record — that is all the first verse gives us, yet it marks the hinge of the whole book of Daniel. From here on, the visions come to the prophet, not to a king. They answer one question: what does God think of the world's great powers?
Commentators read Daniel as two halves, and this verse opens the second. The difference is not in date but in who receives the revelation.
The book of Daniel divides by its very nature into two nearly equal parts. The first six chapters may be regarded as the first volume, the last six as the second. This division rests on the contents of the book. The early chapters consist of visions which the Gentile king saw. They also record moral events that happened to one or another of the kings of Babylon. These vindicated God's mind and His sure judgment. The last half of the book gives visions which the prophet saw. So there is a marked difference between the two portions, even when they treat the same subject. We see this clearly by comparing the seventh chapter with the second. They cover exactly the same ground, but in a different way. The earlier of the two gives the public history of the world, made known to the first man whom the God of heaven made ruler over all mankind, and over the lower creation as well. In chapter 7 that history comes to a saint, with details about the Lord and the saints at the end of the age.
Chapter 5 has already told of Belshazzar's last night. Now we are taken back to his first year, which means the chapter is placed by subject, not by sequence.
The first part shows the history of the world in its outward character, its visible forms, and the question raised between those powers and God. The second part — as you would expect in revelations given to a prophet who stands as the representative of the people of God — reveals the position and character of the players in relation to the saints, their full moral character, and all that inner history in which those saints were most concerned.
Verse 1 steps back in time, and it finds Daniel out of office.
In Daniel 5 we had the record of the last year — indeed the last hours — of Belshazzar's kingship. As we open chapter 7, we are carried back to the first year of his reign. At this time Daniel had sunk into complete obscurity, as chapter 5 shows. He had lost touch with worldly fame, but by a dream he was still in touch with heaven.
Isaiah and Jeremiah carried God's message to the nation. Daniel does not; his people are in exile, and what he receives he writes down.
The prophecies of Daniel are unlike any other prophecies in the Old Testament. The reason is that they are not addressed directly to God's people. During the captivity the Jews are no longer publicly recognised as the people of God. So any communications God makes are not addressed to them, but to Daniel personally. Even so, we read that Daniel "wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter." So these visions unfold the future of the world. They stand on record for the guidance of God's people in all ages.
One other man received visions while shut out of public life:
With the prophets generally, the word of the Lord came to them, or they spoke as moved by the Holy Spirit. It was not so with Daniel. Instead, he "saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed." In fact he was not a messenger to God's people, as Isaiah and Jeremiah were. Like John on Patmos, he received revelations of the future for the guidance of God's people in all ages.
The "sum of the matter" is not one picture but several.
We say the first vision, though in fact three visions are given here. They begin at verses 2, 7 and 13. Besides these, the interpretation is found in verses 17-27, in answer to his question. The aim of the chapter seems to be the fourth Gentile empire. It shows that empire's judgment, and its replacement by the kingdom of the Son of Man.
In the dream the world's great empires appear as animals.
It may be asked, why should these powers be pictured as wild beasts? By this God would show us their moral character as it appears in His sight. The beast lives by force, and to satisfy its appetites, with no sense of responsibility toward God. In the same way the Gentile powers have been marked by greed for conquest and lust for power and glory. God has not been in all their thoughts.
- Turn — Chapter 7 opens the book's second half. The dreams no longer come to kings. The visions come to the prophet, over the same ground as chapter 2, seen from a different side.
- Timing — The date takes us back to Belshazzar's first year, before the events of chapter 5. Daniel had dropped out of public sight, yet he was still in touch with heaven.
- Recipient — The nation is in captivity and no longer owned in public as God's people. So the revelation comes to Daniel himself.
- Record — He wrote the dream down. What one forgotten man received became guidance for God's people in every age.
- Target — The three visions drive at the fourth empire, its judgment, and the kingdom of the Son of Man that replaces it. The powers appear as beasts because that is their moral character in God's sight.
Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heavens broke forth upon the great sea.
Daniel's night vision opens with a storm: four winds tearing at a great sea. Before a single empire appears, two questions press — what is this sea, and who stirs it?
In prophecy, water stands for people, not geography. One writer contrasts the sea with a second image — the earth:
In prophetic language the great sea always means masses of people. So Babylon sits "on many waters" (Revelation 17:1, 15; Jeremiah 51:13). These are people who at the time of the vision were not yet formed into kingdoms and empires, and so were not yet acknowledged by God as objects of prophecy. Those settled powers are rather called the earth.
Commentators differ on where the disturbance comes from. Some read the winds as God's agents in providence:
The winds are different disturbing influences. God orders them in providence, and in judgment, to carry out His purposes in governing the earth. So in Revelation 7 angels hold back the four winds of the earth from their work of judgment. They wait until God has sealed His servants on their foreheads. There they are the winds of earth, because the earth was what they were sent to strike. In Daniel they are the winds of heaven, showing the source they were sent from.
Others read the wind as Satan's power at work:
"Wind" often represents the power of Satan, for he is "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2). What Daniel saw was a picture of the forces of darkness working on the masses of mankind. As we shall see, this produced the four world-empires that fill up the times of the Gentiles. Israel is the only nation God has raised up to a place of supremacy. But while Israel is set aside, four world powers arise. They come from the striving of satanic forces, and not from the working of God's power.
Commentators differ. Some take it as a real body of water:
"The great sea" is the name given to the Mediterranean. That sea is completely surrounded by the countries that make up the prophetic earth. The four beasts rising out of the sea answer to the four parts of the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Nebuchadnezzar had the outward course of the great world-empires unfolded to him, while Daniel had their inner character revealed to him.
Others answer from the Hebrew wording:
The words used in Daniel for the great sea are not at all the same as "the Great Sea" when the Mediterranean is meant. I do not believe the expression is ever used of the Mediterranean. Daniel uses a Hebrew word meaning, I think, a multitude of waters. In this general sense it stands without the article — the four winds of heaven striving upon great waters. "The Great Sea" is used with the article.
One writer takes up an apparent clash inside the chapter:
The four kings of verse 17 arise out of the earth. There is no contradiction at all between that and verse 2, where they came up from the sea. They are said to rise from the sea because the sea represents a mass of men in a state of political anarchy. It is out of this troubled state of peoples that empires arise. Take the French Empire, for example. A revolution broke up the old system of government. Then followed a state of confusion, like the sea torn by the winds, and out of it all an empire emerged... The force of the sea was simply to show that they grew out of a previously troubled state of society. Such was their providential origin. But their moral origin is looked at as purely earthly, in contrast with the Son of man, who comes in the clouds of heaven.
Another prophet saw four chariots. One writer explains them:
The chariots are presented as "the four spirits of the heavens, which go out from standing before the Lord of all the earth" (compare Daniel 7:2). God is showing us that His providence directed the course of these warring powers from the very beginning. To all appearances each power did whatever it wanted, following its own ways without taking account of God. In reality He stood behind the scenes. The four spirits of the heavens stood before His face, to lead the empires along the paths He wanted them to take.
- Sea — In prophecy, water is people: crowds not yet organised into kingdoms. Prophecy calls settled, governed nations "the earth."
- Wind — The stirring force. Some writers read it as God's providence in judgment. Others read it as satanic power at work on the crowds.
- Storm — Empires are not born in calm. Revolution and confusion come first, and out of the churning a world power rises.
- Wording — Writers differ over whether "the great sea" is the Mediterranean. One argument from the Hebrew: Daniel's phrase means a multitude of waters.
- Steering — The powers looked like they were following their own will. Behind the scenes God directed every one of them where He meant them to go.
And four great beasts came up from the sea, different one from another.
Daniel's night vision covers the same ground as Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great statue, but from another angle. Four beasts rise out of a stormy sea, and that raises two questions: what the sea stands for, and why the empires look like animals instead of a man.
The sea is not water but people — crowds with no settled government. One writer points to modern history:
The sea represents a mass of men in a state of political anarchy. It is out of this troubled state of peoples that empires arise. Take the French Empire for example. A revolution broke up the old system of government. Then followed a state of confusion, like the sea torn with the winds, and out of it all emerged an empire. From such a state of things in the world the four great empires arose.
None of it is literal, and the same picture appears elsewhere in Scripture:
These are not actual beasts nor an actual sea, but four great world empires that have their origin in the nations. Also we have a similar thought expressed in Revelation 13:1, where we read of a beast rising up out of the sea.
Later in the chapter the interpretation says these four kings "arise out of the earth" (v. 17), not out of the sea. The two statements answer different questions:
In the vision they rise out of the sea; in the interpretation they rise from the earth. The vision shows their providential or political origin; the interpretation shows their moral origin. In God's providence they rise in a time of political upheaval. Morally they are earthly, unlike the kingdom of the Son of Man, who comes from heaven.
The empires that looked like a splendid human figure to a pagan king look like animals to a prophet. The chapters in between explain the change:
The four beasts of Daniel's vision match, as everyone knows, the one human figure that the king of Babylon saw. In his eyes it at least looks like a man, though it has no breath and no life. To the prophet later, on the other hand, the world empires are full of life — but the life is that of an animal. One of the chapters in between links the two. In the fourth chapter Nebuchadnezzar is himself driven out among the beasts, as a corrective punishment, until he knows "that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men." In a pride that has forgotten God, he has become nothing but a beast, which knows no God.
Calling a government a beast is a verdict on its character, not an insult:
Why does God picture these powers as wild beasts? He does it to show us their moral character as He sees it. A beast lives by force, and to satisfy its appetites, with no sense of responsibility to God. In the same way the Gentile powers have been marked by greed for conquest and a craving for power and glory. God has not been in all their thoughts. It is striking that these powers have willingly taken the character of a wild beast, perhaps without knowing they were fulfilling God's Word. Is it not a fact that many have chosen wild beasts or birds of prey as their national symbols? Look at the lion of England and the eagle of the United States.
The four are not interchangeable. Writers identify them as the same succession pictured in the statue:
Nebuchadnezzar's vision unfolded the outward course of the great world empires, while Daniel's vision revealed their inner character. Lion — the Babylonian Empire. Bear — the Medo-Persian Empire. Leopard — the Greek Empire. Fourth beast — the Roman Empire.
Their differences trace a direction of travel:
Here these same empires appear in a form that shows how each one sinks lower morally in the sight of God. Cruelty, selfishness and greed, with no recognition or knowledge of God, mark the beast. These are the solemn features of the world empires through the times of the Gentiles, until the dominion of Christ is established.
Commentators differ over "the great sea." Some take it as the Mediterranean. One writer disagrees:
I do not believe the expression is ever used of the Mediterranean. Daniel uses a Hebrew word (Rab) meaning a multitude of waters, and he uses it with no article; "the Great Sea" is used with the article. It is quite clear that the passage in Daniel speaks of the origin of these empires from a sea of peoples with no settled shape.
- Sea — the restless, ungoverned mass of peoples. Empires come out of political chaos, as one came out of revolution in France.
- Rise — the vision gives their providential origin, out of the sea; the interpretation gives their moral origin, out of the earth. The Son of Man, by contrast, comes from heaven.
- Beast — what looked like a splendid man to Nebuchadnezzar looks like an animal to God. The king who forgot God was himself driven out among the beasts.
- Character — a beast lives by force and appetite, with no sense of responsibility to God. Nations have taken lions and eagles as their own emblems.
- Different — lion, bear, leopard and the fourth beast trace a moral slide downward in the times of the Gentiles. It ends when Christ's dominion is established.
The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings I beheld till its wings were plucked; and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon two feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
Daniel's night vision covers the same four world powers as the great statue of chapter 2. But the picture has changed. What a king saw as a splendid image now rises out of a stormy sea as wild animals. The first of them is Babylon at its peak, and this verse shows God taking that peak away.
The two visions show the same empires from two different sides:
In the vision of the image, these empires were shown as impressive but declining powers, as men see them. Here the same empires are shown in a form that expresses their moral decline, one after another, as God sees them. Cruelty, selfishness and greed, with no recognition or knowledge of God, mark the beast. These are the solemn features of the world empires through the times of the Gentiles, until Christ's rule is set up.
The two creatures joined in this one symbol were not new language for Babylon. Earlier prophets had already used both:
"The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings." Here, beyond question, we have the empire of Babylon. It is nothing new for the Holy Spirit to apply the figure of a lion to Nebuchadnezzar, or of an eagle either. Jeremiah has already used both, and names him as both the lion and the eagle in Jer. 49:19-22. Ezekiel pictured him as an eagle too. In Daniel's vision the Holy Spirit combines the two figures in one symbol, to give a fitting picture of what the Babylonian empire was in the mind of God.
Together they say two things: the lion stands for majesty, and the wings for "swift marching and conquest, which marked the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar above all" (Edward Dennett).
Babylon did not seize the top place. God gave it, and gave it on terms:
This was the power to which God gave dominion after He set Israel and the house of David aside. Remarkably, while God still owned Israel, He let no power rise to the top place on earth. Both Egypt and Assyria wanted that place and fought for it, but neither one won it. When the time came for David's throne to be overthrown, God let the rising power of Babylon conquer both of those older empires, and so it became supreme among the nations. Keeping that place depended on faithfulness to the trust given by Him who rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He will. Babylon proved unfaithful, and so God set it aside.
Daniel then watches the beast change. Every part of the change speaks of loss:
The wings of the beast were plucked. It lost the swift action that had marked it out, and this shows what the empire became in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar's weak successors. The beast also lost its own natural posture. It was made to stand up like a man and was given the heart of a man — pictures of the weak state to which Babylon sank in the end. For if a lion is made to stand up, and its whole nature is changed, it has lost both its power and its grandeur.
Babylon itself was not wiped out. It was demoted: "remained a great city after its dominion was taken away… it became a province, and was no longer mistress of the world" (J. N. Darby).
Where the ESV reads "the mind of a man was given to it," older translations say "a man's heart." Commentators work from that older wording, and they link it back to Nebuchadnezzar himself:
In keeping with this, "a man's heart was given to it." There may be a contrast here with what was done to Nebuchadnezzar himself, who was given a beast's heart. The proud king was not looking up to God, which is the plain duty of every soul. A man who does not recognize the God who made him is not truly a man… In Nebuchadnezzar's case, man was taken up with himself. Satan twisted the very gift of worldwide rule that God had given him, so that self, and not God, became the object of his thoughts.
The two hearts differ in direction: "Man's heart looks upwards to God; a beast's heart looks down and ravages others" (J. N. Darby).
- Given. Babylon rose only when God set David's throne aside. It held that power on trust from the God who gives kingdoms to whomever He will.
- Grandeur. Earlier prophets pictured Babylon as a lion and as an eagle. Daniel's vision joins the two: majesty plus the speed of its conquests.
- God's view. What dazzles men as a golden image looks to God like wild beasts: power that will not recognize Him.
- Stripped. Plucked wings, an upright stance, a man's heart — all say one thing. The swift conquering stops, and the empire sinks into weakness.
- Lesson. Nebuchadnezzar looked down at himself instead of up to God, so God gave him a beast's heart. A man's heart is the heart that owns One above it.
And behold, another beast, a second, like unto a bear, and it raised up itself on one side; and [it had] three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and they said thus unto it Arise, devour much flesh.
Daniel watched four beasts rise out of a storm-tossed sea. The second one pictures an empire he would soon live under, and every detail counts: the lopsided stance, the ribs clenched in its teeth, the order given to it.
God showed these empires to His prophet as wild animals. One commentator explains what that picture says about them.
Some may ask, "Why are they shown as wild beasts?" We learn in this figure their moral character in the eyes of God. Beasts live to satisfy their appetites, with no sense of responsibility towards God. The figure is a true one. Neither Babylon nor Persia nor the rest ruled for God. Love of power and greed of conquest marked every one of them, some more and some less.
The bear's identity is not guesswork. Scripture names the kingdom it followed and the kingdom that came after it.
Just as plainly, if the first beast stands for Babylon, the second stands for Persia — or rather for the Medo-Persian kingdom. Daniel 5 tells us in so many words that this kingdom followed Babylon, and Daniel 8 tells us it came before Greece. History says the same, as everyone knows. The symbol of a bear shows its ferocious character.
The choice of animal is itself a comment on the empire. Compared with the lion of verse 4, the bear is heavy and clumsy.
The three ribs in its mouth show the bear's ferocity plainly. But it has none of the lion's majesty, energy, or dash. It is clumsier and more awkward in its movements, yet marked by endless conquest and greed.
A bear standing higher on one side is a strange picture until you know that two peoples made up this empire. Which of them would rule was not the obvious answer.
It was an empire not so uniform as the Babylonian. It consisted of two peoples joined under one head. Another remarkable feature is this: it was the inferior of the two kingdoms that prevailed. The Persian takes the upper hand of the Mede. So in Daniel 5 we saw that Darius the Mede took the kingdom. But Cyrus soon followed. From then on it was always the Persian who governed, not the Mede.
A later vision in Daniel 8 pictures the same empire as a ram. It repeats the same uneven detail.
Its one-sidedness shows us how exact the Spirit of God is in the details of Scripture. The next chapter pictures the same empire as a ram with two horns. There we learn that "one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last" (Daniel 8:3). This points to a power with two branches, and to a leading branch — the Persian — that was the younger. So the Spirit of God takes notice of a simple and well-known historical fact.
Commentators differ on the ribs. Some take them as a picture of appetite — the beast caught mid-meal.
Imagine a panorama of different beasts, with one animal painted holding a heap of prey and eating it. At once we would think of a huge appetite. That was the case with the Persians. They faced frequent revolts, because of their extortion and cruelty.
Others count them as three conquests: "The three ribs stand for the conquest of three provinces by this power." Arno Clemens Gaebelein
Persia's own history bears the order out, kindness to the Jews included.
Cyrus the Persian became favourable to the Jews, as the opening verses of Ezra show. Apart from this, its power was not tolerant. The words "Arise, devour much flesh" came true in its history.
The size of the finished empire shows how far that order went. Its territory "included what is now known as Turkey in Asia, Persia, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, as far as the river Indus, with a good portion of Egypt. In the words of Scripture, it had 'devoured much flesh.'" Morrish Bible Dictionary
- Beast — God sees this empire as a wild animal: strength with no sense of responsibility toward Him.
- Bear — the symbol is Medo-Persia. Daniel 5 shows it followed Babylon; Daniel 8 shows it came before Greece. It is heavy and greedy, not majestic like the lion.
- Balance — "raised up on one side" marks an empire of two peoples. The younger branch, Persia, came to rule. The ram of Daniel 8 says the same again.
- Bite — the ribs show an empire caught in the act of feeding. Commentators differ: some see plain greed, others three conquered provinces.
- Bidding — Persia obeyed the order to the letter, from the Indus to Egypt. Such exact detail shows the care of the Spirit of God in Scripture.
After this I saw, and behold, another, like a leopard, and it had four wings of a bird upon its back; and the beast had four heads; and dominion was given to it.
Daniel's night vision moves on to a third creature: a leopard with wings and four heads, whose rule was handed to it. Three questions follow — which empire is this, why these odd features, and who gave it power?
The book supplies its own key: a later vision in Daniel names the kingdom outright.
The third beast was like a leopard, having on its back four wings of a bird. We need not go outside the book of Daniel for the interpretation of this. Daniel 8:21 lets us know that it was the Grecian Power that destroyed the Medo-Persian Empire. The leopard is fast in its movements by nature; the wings added in the vision speak of extraordinary speed. Most people know that Alexander led his forces against Persia to avenge Xerxes' invasion of Greece (Daniel 11:2). In about twelve years he conquered almost the whole known world.
No such animal has ever walked the earth. God borrows its features from real creatures.
There was nothing in nature like this leopard. God takes features from different things that did exist in nature and combines them to give an idea of this new empire. The leopard is known for its agility in chasing its prey. Yet, to give something beyond nature, we hear that it had "on its back four wings of a bird." If headlong courage in pursuing great plans was ever joined with speed in winning one conquest after another, we find it in the history of Alexander the Great.
More wings do not mean more glory here. The bird they belong to, and the number of heads, both point downward.
The third beast does not lack speed in action, for it has on its back four wings of a bird. But its flight is not the lofty, magnificent flight of the eagle; it is that of a much lower bird. It has, however, four wings instead of two. It has also four heads; absolute authority was not held by one head only. To it dominion was given.
The four heads do not describe the empire at its founding. They describe what it became after Alexander died — the stage that mattered most for the Jews.
This is without doubt the empire of Alexander. The vision describes this beast more by what it became after Alexander died, when his empire split into four parts, than by what it was while he held it together. This matters, because two of those parts had much more to do with the Jews than the empire had in Alexander's own time. Two of these are afterwards called (chapter 11) the king of the north and the king of the south.
Later chapters in Daniel identify these four by name.
Daniel tells us also that the leopard had four heads. As Daniel 8:8-22 and 11:4 tell us, these are the four military leaders — not descendants of Alexander — who divided his dominions among themselves after his death. Their names were Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus.
The verse does not say the beast seized rule. It says rule was given — and a giver stands behind it.
Whatever the nature and character of these beasts, God ordained them as truly as He ordained David, the King of Israel, the man anointed with the holy oil. Driven by their own self-will and greed, they devoured countries, conquered kingdoms, and took thrones. But behind all that man could see, the hand of God was working out His wise designs. Neither they nor their armies could go one inch beyond what He permitted. … Neither man nor the devil has power to do anything apart from God's permission. What a comfort this truth is to our cowardly souls!
The earlier vision showed these empires as an image. Here they appear as wild animals, and the change of picture is a change of viewpoint.
The vision of the image showed these empires as imposing but declining powers in the sight of men. Here the same empires appear in a form that shows their step-by-step moral decline in the sight of God. Cruelty, selfishness and greed, with no recognition or knowledge of God, mark the beast. These are the solemn features of the world empires through the times of the Gentiles, until the dominion of Christ is established.
- Given, not grabbed. "Dominion was given to it" is the hinge of the verse. Empires rise by permission, and none moves an inch past what God allows.
- Given speed. Leopard plus wings is a picture built beyond nature. It joins agility to headlong conquest — Alexander's sweep across the known world in twelve years.
- Given lesser glory. Four wings of a common bird, not the eagle's flight; four heads, not one ruler — more spread, less majesty.
- Given a future. The four heads show the empire after Alexander's death — four generals divided it, and two of their parts became the kings of the north and south.
- Given for a time. Seen from God's side these powers are beasts: conquest without conscience. Their day runs only until the dominion of Christ is established.
After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and exceeding strong; and it had great iron teeth it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the rest with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
Daniel has already watched three beasts rise out of the sea, and he could name each one — a lion, a bear, a leopard. The fourth breaks that pattern. No animal fits it, and it carries ten horns.
This beast has no animal to stand for it. Commentators say the vision leaves it nameless on purpose.
The fourth beast speaks mostly of events still to come. It matters so much that Daniel receives further details in a second vision. Nothing in nature can compare to this beast. It stands there on purpose as an unnatural monster, filling the one who sees it with dread and terror.
The same four empires appear twice in Daniel. In chapter 2 a king sees a great statue. Here a prophet sees wild animals. What changed is not the empires but who is looking.
When the four empires were shown in symbol to the Gentile king, they had their worldly aspect. There was the likeness of a great image, majestic in its proportions, made of the most costly, lasting, and useful of metals... Here is the world's estimate of imperial power and successful ambition, and the world bows down and worships. But the saint sees these same empires in symbol as unclean and terrifying beasts: greedy for blood, fierce, untameable. The last one went so far beyond the rest in those qualities that no animal known to man could set out its character. So a strange monster, a terror of nature, stood before the prophet's eye to picture the fourth empire. This gives us God's judgement about these empires, and shows what value His saints should put on their splendour and power.
The beast eats and it tramples. Writers apply both actions to Rome.
No doubt the Roman empire had all these awful features, bringing dread and terror to all who opposed it or attracted its greed; taking whatever served its purpose, and destroying what it could not use.
What the beast did not swallow, it stamped on. One writer spells out what that meant on the map.
It devoured and broke in pieces, and it stamped on what was left with its feet. That is to say, it took over the territories of previous empires and absorbed them into its own — not all of each empire, but its most important parts.
The verse says this beast was different from every beast before it. One writer finds that difference inside its own government.
It was an empire that kept a strong sense of the will of man — of the people. It combined certain republican elements with as iron a despotism as ever ruled in this world. These two things were brought into distinct, but seemingly harmonious, play.
Daniel sees the ten horns the moment the beast appears. One writer explains why the vision does not run in historical order.
We are not to look for the actual development of history in this vision. If we did, the ten horns would clearly not have been seen on the Roman beast when it first met the eyes of the prophet. The Spirit of God brings into the very first view the features that would be found at the close, and not at the beginning.
The verse ends with ten horns. One writer asks a plain historical question about them.
The last clause of verse 7 needs careful attention — "it had ten horns." Verse 24 tells us that these are ten kings. That raises an important question. When was anything of this kind seen in the Roman Empire of the past? For a long period it had only one head. Then for a considerable time three or four rulers held power together. But anything like what we have before us here has never yet been seen. What, then, are we to understand from the statements of our chapter? Just this: that the history of the Roman Empire is not finished, for no word of God can fall to the ground. So between the two last clauses of verse 7 there is a gap of many hundreds of years. That is not at all unusual in the prophetic Word.
What fills that gap? Writers point to the same empire in a future form.
Here it is enough to note that the ten horns clearly take us on to the future. Then the Roman Empire will be revived in a ten-kingdom form under one head (see Rev. 13:1; Rev. 17:12).
- Unnamed — no creature in nature fits the fourth beast. Daniel sees a monster instead of an animal, and it fills him with dread.
- Unmasked — the statue of Daniel 2 shows how the world admires empire. The beasts of Daniel 7 show how God sees it. His saints are to value it as He does.
- Unsparing — iron teeth take the best of earlier empires, and the feet trample the rest.
- Unlike — one government held the will of the people and an iron despotism together at once.
- Unfinished — Rome never had ten kings at once. So a gap of centuries stands inside verse 7, waiting for a revived empire of ten kingdoms under one head.
I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another, a little horn, 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.
Daniel watches the ten horns of the fourth beast. As he looks, an eleventh horn pushes up and tears out three of them — and this one has human eyes and a voice.
The word "little" is not decoration. It marks the starting point of a career, not its finish.
Here we have divine ground to know that the "little horn" of the west will at first be a small power among the other ten, and that he only becomes great by destroying three of his contemporary powers. He becomes at last not only the possessor of these three kingdoms but the overlord of all the rest. This is the form in which he becomes emperor of the western powers.
Uprooting three kingdoms is how he opens; the other seven follow by a different route.
This eleventh horn is Satan's agent for bringing together the broken-up parts of the ancient Empire of Rome. He will begin by conquering three of the European kingdoms. Then cunning or force will draw seven others to join with these in a general confederacy. Each kingdom will keep its own ruler, but all will acknowledge the supreme leadership of the little horn.
Horns picture force. The eyes point to something else.
The little horn is marked by immense intelligence — not by brute force. The description of it contrasts with that of the Lord, the Lamb who was slain. He has seven horns and seven eyes — that is, the perfection of intelligence and of power. In this case it is not so. The power outwardly looks much greater. It has ten horns instead of seven — a monster instead of perfection. The result is a kind of grotesque exaggeration of the power and wisdom of Christ, which wretched man, energised by Satan, will claim for himself.
This horn is more than a violent conqueror. His words have consequences.
This description is not simply that of a power driven into action by its passions, nor of a conqueror who goes about ravaging everywhere. There was something more in the ways of this little horn: extreme arrogance, intelligence, design, planning, reflection. He had eyes like the eyes of a man… He also had "a mouth speaking great things," that is, enormous boasting. This particularly marks this horn. It is because of the words this horn spoke that the beast was destroyed. He is the one who brings on the judgment of the fourth beast. The little horn is the one who morally influences the beast.
Some read the horns as systems or governments rather than real people. The verse points the other way.
But the great words of the horn bring judgment down upon the beast, and this assures us all the more of the horn's personality. A "political system" is not a responsible agent; for that you need a living being. We could not think of ten political systems where an eleventh subdued three of them, as is said of the "horn." If a real king is meant, nothing is more natural. A king is the meaning of both "horn" and "head," and that should be simple enough to need no further explanation.
Many readers have applied this horn to the pope. One commentator grants the likeness, then applies a simple test.
The pope has never gained three of the ten kingdoms… All its weight has come instead from its spiritual deception over the souls of men. Clearly, then, a power, small in its beginnings, is to rise and put down three of these greater powers, taking over all their dominion. The pope has never done any such thing. So although there has been a measure of likeness, there is enough difference to make the distinction quite plain.
He does not dismiss that older reading completely:
I gather from that, not that this has no bearing upon the papacy, but that its full fulfilment is in the future.
- Small — he begins as the least of eleven horns; smallness at the start says nothing about where a man will end.
- Seizing — he tears three kingdoms up by the roots, and the other seven then fall in behind him.
- Seeing — the human eyes mark intelligence, not brute force. It is a twisted copy of the wisdom and power that belong to the Lamb.
- Speaking — his boasting is what defines him, and what draws down judgment on the whole beast he leads.
- Someone — a system cannot answer for anything; the horn is a real king. And no past figure fits, since no pope ever subdued three kingdoms.
I beheld till thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was flames of fire, [and] its wheels burning fire.
Daniel's night vision shifts without warning. The beasts rising out of a churning sea give way to a courtroom, where One takes His seat in snow-white clothing on a throne of fire.
Older English Bibles read "the thrones were cast down," which suggests destruction. Commentators differ on the wording. One says the true reading is "set up," which the ESV's "thrones were placed" carries. Another says both words come to the same thing. Either way, this is not God steering events from behind the scenes. It is a court sitting down.
"I saw until the thrones were set up." That is how it ought to read, instead of "cast down." This is not just my opinion. It is the way the best ancient and modern translations of Scripture all understand it... There you have a clear picture of the divine glory in judgment. It is not just God working through providence on the earth, but the process of judgment that God Himself will set up.
The wording comes from a courtroom custom, and the court has records to open.
"Cast down," or "placed," as in the Revised Version, both really mean the same thing. The reference is to the Eastern custom of throwing down cushions for the judges to sit on... This judgment is set, and the books are opened. The court looks into how the Gentile Empires used the power God granted them. The great Judge of all examines the doings of the little horn in particular.
The court does not assemble at random. It answers something said out loud.
Afterwards the thrones are set, and the Ancient of days sits. It is a session of judgment, the throne of Jehovah's judgment; it is not said where, but its effect is on earth. The words of the little horn are what set the judgment in motion. It falls on the beast, which is destroyed, and its body given to the flames. The other beasts lost their dominion, but their lives went on. The fourth loses its life along with its dominion.
The title points to the eternal God — and the same chapter shows who holds it. This session is also not the last judgment.
That the Ancient of days is the Eternal God is beyond question. It is just as clear, from verse 22 and from Revelation 1, that the Son of man is the Ancient of days, the Eternal God. God has committed all judgment to Him because He is the Son of man. Scripture plainly declares the scene before us to be a session of judgment — not the session of judgment of the Great White Throne in Revelation 20, but a session for the judgment of the living... in preparation for the setting up of His kingdom.
Daniel and John see the same Person. Each shows a different half of the picture.
In the Revelation the two glories are both united in the Person of Christ. Revelation 1 shows us one like the Son of man. But when we come to the description of Him, some of the features are exactly the same as the ones given here to the Ancient of days. His garment is said to be as white as snow, the hair of His head like pure wool, and so on. The Jewish prophet sees Christ simply as man. The Christian prophet sees Him as man, but as God as well.
Fire marks the throne, its wheels, and the stream flowing out. Scripture uses that image with a settled meaning.
The throne was like a fiery flame, its wheels as burning fire, and a fiery stream came out from before Him. Fire is always a symbol in Scripture of the holiness of God applied in judgment.
Daniel counts more than one throne, yet names only one occupant. John's vision fills in the rest.
When Daniel beheld the thrones, not "cast down" but "set up," he speaks of no one sitting but One, the Ancient of days. When John saw thrones, others were sitting on them, and judgment was given to them.
Another writer says who those other thrones are for.
Not one throne, but many; for the glorified saints are to have part in this judgment.
- Provocation — The boasting of the little horn brings the court into session. Defiance of God has a limit.
- Session — The thrones are set up, not cast down. A court sits, the books open, and the Gentile empires answer for how they used their power.
- Person — The Ancient of days is the eternal God. Verse 22 and Revelation 1 show the Son of man with the same snow-white features.
- Fire — The flaming throne is holiness applied in judgment. This court judges the living, not the session of the Great White Throne in Revelation 20.
- Result — The fourth beast alone loses its life along with its dominion, and the way opens for the Son of man's kingdom.
A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
Daniel's night vision moves from a parade of beast-like empires to a courtroom of fire, with countless attendants and open books. Three questions follow: who is on trial, when does this court sit, and what do the books hold?
Older Bibles read "cast down." That sounds like thrones toppling. One writer says the words mean the opposite.
"I saw until the thrones were set up." That is how it should read, instead of "cast down." This is not just my opinion. The best ancient and modern translations of Scripture all read it this way. There you see a clear picture of the divine glory in judgment. This is not just God's ordinary working in events on the earth. It is the process of judgment that God Himself will set up... At whatever time this may be supposed to take place, it is clear that it is a divine judgment.
Flame runs through every detail — the throne, its wheels, the stream pouring out from before Him. Commentators read that fire as a settled biblical symbol.
That the Ancient of Days is the Eternal God is beyond doubt. It is just as clear, both from verse 22 and from Revelation 1, that the Son of man is the Ancient of Days, the Eternal God. All judgment has been committed to Him because He is the Son of man... The throne was like a fiery flame, and its wheels like burning fire. A fiery stream came out from before Him. Fire is always a symbol in Scripture of the holiness of God as applied in judgment.
Readers often place this court at the very end of time. One writer points instead to what its verdict produces.
The scene described is like the judgment of the wicked after the thousand years in Revelation 20, and many suppose it is the same. But however common this mistake is, what is described here is the carrying out of judgment on earth. It is the transfer of power from the hand of man to that of Christ... What is the result declared here? It is the destruction of the horn and of the beast. It is the transfer of the "kingdom, dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven" into the hands of the Son of man, with all His saints.
Daniel counts two groups: thousands who serve, and myriads who stand. One writer says who they are and what they do.
Surrounding the throne are thousands of angelic beings. Carrying out judgment is one of the functions of the angels. Matthew 25 describes the judgment of the living nations. It opens with the Son of Man coming to His throne of glory, "and all the holy angels with him" (Matthew 25:31).
Daniel sees thrones in the plural, yet he names only one occupant. One writer turns to Revelation for the rest.
Daniel has already spoken of these thrones: "I saw," he says, "until the thrones were placed"... "and the Ancient of Days did sit" (Daniel 7:9). But there was then no word about who occupied the thrones. It is the part of Revelation to fill in the picture on its heavenly side, and to show us who these are. They are not angels. There may be "principalities" among the angels, but Scripture never says they will reign with Christ. They are redeemed men.
God does not need reminding. The books are read as evidence produced in public, against the boastful power Daniel had just been watching.
God will take public and formal notice of the acts and words of this daring enemy. It is for this purpose that the books will be opened (v. 10). Those books will hold perfectly accurate records of this ungodly sinner's deeds. The sentence will be passed as the glory of Him who will sit on His holy throne demands.
- Court. The thrones are set up, not cast down: God opens a formal court session, not a slow drift of history.
- Judge. The One seated is the Ancient of Days, the Eternal God, and the Son of man. The fire around Him is His holiness applied in judgment.
- Attendants. Thousands serve and myriads stand. They are angels, and carrying out judgment is part of their work.
- Records. The opened books hold an exact account of one man's deeds. The sentence answers to the glory of the One on the throne.
- Verdict. Not the end of the world, but the end of the beast. Power passes from the hand of man to Christ and His saints.
I beheld therefore, because of the voice of the great words that the horn spoke; I beheld till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed, and it was given up to be burned with fire.
The Ancient of Days has taken His seat for judgment. Daniel's attention now snaps back to earth, to a small horn still boasting while the court sits. The verse answers two questions: what triggers the sentence, and how far it reaches.
The trigger is not an army or an invasion. It is speech. The horn boasts while God sits in judgment.
The occasion then was "the great words which the horn spoke." Revelation 13 says of the beast: "The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words… It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His dwelling and those who dwell in heaven." Because of these blasphemies the Ancient of Days came and sat for judgment on His fiery throne. These daring acts of defiance against God filled his cup of iniquity to overflowing. Judgment came upon him, swift and sure.
The prophet is not just reporting. He is watching something that shocks him: open blasphemy in full view of the throne.
Now the little horn takes up all of Daniel's attention (v. 11)… He is amazed to hear this horn speaking blasphemous things there, in the very presence of God. He wondered that God should permit it; but he saw the beast slain. This was the result.
Notice the switch. The horn does the talking, but the beast dies. God treats the two as one.
The prophet says, "I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed." God judges the beast for the words of the horn. Beast and horn are one as to responsibility before God. Now a "horn" too is a "king" (Rev. 17:12). Here even in Daniel is a king so morally identified with the beast that he draws down the judgment of God upon it.
One writer points out what Daniel does not say.
Daniel says he looked "because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking" — not until the horn was put down, but until "the beast was killed." This implies that the little horn had managed to govern the entire beast.
Fire and a throne can make a reader think of the last courtroom of all. This scene comes earlier.
Here the judgment deals above all with the little horn and the beast he ruled… Blasphemous defiance of God will mark the last head of the revived Roman Empire. That defiance will bring swift and overwhelming judgment on him and on his dominion. Note that the judgment Daniel speaks of is not the final judgment of the Great White Throne, when God will raise the dead and judge them. Daniel speaks of the judgment of the living nations which will precede the reign of Christ.
Empires usually fade slowly and break apart. This one ends in a different way.
What happened to the Roman empire in the past was the ordinary course and decline of a great nation. Barbarian hordes tore it up, and separate kingdoms took its place. But prophecy tells us of something altogether different. It warns of a judgment that disposes of the beast in a completely different way from the others… The first three beasts lost their imperial dignity, but they themselves could still be said to exist. The fourth empire is different. The hour that destroys its dominion is the hour that destroys the empire itself.
Daniel sees a body given to fire. Revelation fills in what happens to the person behind the empire.
Add verse 11 to the sentence passed on his dominion, and we see what the judgment was on his person. Verse 11 itself speaks only of the "body" of the beast… Revelation 19 gives us more information. It belongs to the same judgment. There we read that both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into a lake of fire burning with sulphur (v. 20). He is stripped of his dominion. Like Belshazzar, he has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. He suffers with the false prophet the vengeance of eternal fire.
Another writer notes what the word "alive" rules out.
The beast and the false prophet are the personal enemies of Christ. So in the day of battle the Lord meets them in person, and both are thrown alive into the lake. They never die the death common to man, so no resurrection awaits them. Death does not separate their soul and body. They go into the lake alive.
- Words start it. The sentence falls because of what the horn says. Blasphemy spoken in front of the seated Ancient of Days fills the cup.
- Words spread it. The horn boasts, the beast dies: the ruler and his empire are one before God, so his guilt becomes its ruin.
- Words end it. The first three empires lost their rule but kept their lives. The fourth loses rule and life in the same hour.
- Timing. This is the judgment of the living nations before Christ's reign. It is not the Great White Throne, where God raises the dead.
- Destination. Revelation fills in the fire. The beast goes into the lake alive: no death, and so no resurrection.
As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away; but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
The vision has just shown the fourth beast destroyed, and now the prophet looks back at the three empires before it. Verse 12 says they lost their rule but kept their lives, which raises a question about what God does with defeated powers.
This verse does not describe the next event after the judgment of the fourth beast. It takes a step back in the vision.
We must not think that this followed directly on what comes before. Daniel had already seen all four beasts. Now, after the judgment of the last one, the vision goes back to tell us what had been done with the first three. That was not done at this session of judgment. It happened earlier, in God's judicial dealings in His providential government.
Losing an empire is not the same as disappearing. The verse separates power from survival.
We still have the remains of the Chaldeans, or of the races once called by that name. Persia continues as a kingdom, and the Greeks have lately become one. They exist, then, though not as imperial powers. We have these races of men, more or less, representing those powers — smaller, it is true, and no longer holding dominion as empires. This is the meaning of verse 12.
Another writer names what became of each of the three.
When Babylon lost its imperial place in the earth, it did not cease to exist. It remained a flourishing city for centuries afterwards. Peter wrote his first letter there (1 Peter 5:13). Persia and Greece remain before our eyes to this day, though stripped of their ancient power and glory.
No public act of judgment struck down the first three empires. The ordinary movement of history displaced them, and God was behind that movement.
God had been hidden, so to speak, during the time of the other beasts. Yet His providence was at work. The Persians replaced the Babylonians, and the Greeks replaced the Persians. All of this happened the way things still happen now: by the arrangement of that providence which governs the world. It happened this way because the Ancient of Days was not yet sitting to execute judgment for the acts committed against Him, though His rights can never be cancelled.
For the first three, dominion went long before life did. For the last, both go at once.
After Babylon lost its dominion, it continued to exist for some time, and so did Persia. But the destruction of the fourth beast will be complete. The others lived on after their empire fell. Here the judgment and the destruction go together.
That difference marks out one empire as unique in the whole series.
The Babylonian lost its imperial power; so did the Medo-Persian, as well as the Macedonian or Grecian, never to rise again. Yet they were all to exist, and so they do still; but their dominion was to be taken away, as it is laid down in Dan. 7:12. There was to be no revival of their imperial character, though a prolonging in life was given them when their dominion was lost.
One writer answers a fair question: why should anyone care now about empires that fell so long ago?
These empires, in the day of their power, had to do with God's people, and whatever concerns His people touches His glory. That gives them deep and lasting importance. Their lives were also prolonged. So to the end of the times of the Gentiles, there will still exist nations that represent these once powerful empires. At the time of the end, these nations will stand against the people of God — the Jews.
- Backward glance. The verse steps back from the fourth beast's judgment. It tells what God had already done with the first three.
- Providence. Babylon fell to Persia, and Persia to Greece. The God who governs the world arranged it, without a court sitting in judgment.
- Prolonged. They lost dominion, not life. These peoples lost world rule but kept a smaller existence as nations.
- Different end. The fourth beast loses dominion and life in the same hour. It revives before that judgment, but after it, it is gone for ever.
- Still on stage. The old empires survive, so their nations return at the time of the end and stand against God's people. That is why their history matters.
I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of heaven [one] like a son of man, and he came up even to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
Daniel's night vision has just shown four beasts rising out of the sea — empires that grab, tear and devour. Then a figure appears who is not a beast at all but a man, and God hands Him everything the beasts fought over.
The earlier scenes end in judgment; this one shows what that judgment made room for.
The judgment of the beast clears the way for the setting up of the Kingdom of Christ. This glorious event is foretold by a third vision, in which Daniel sees one like the Son of Man come with the clouds of heaven. He receives His kingdom as Man from God, the Ancient of Days. His dominion is world-wide, embracing "all people, nations, and languages." His dominion will be everlasting. It will not, like other kingdoms, pass away. It will never be destroyed.
The vision also names the One this Man comes to.
A new vision follows (verses 13 and 14), in contrast with the powers pictured as savage beasts. The new object that stands out is "one like the Son of man." ... The Ancient of days stands for God Himself, "the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity."
The title matters. Commentators say it is wider than "Messiah," and that the change of title followed His rejection.
On Daniel 7: it is not now the Messiah, owned as King in Zion, but ONE in the form of the Son of man, a title of far greater and much wider meaning. It is the change from Psalm 2 to Psalm 8, brought about by the rejection of the Messiah.
The word "like" has made some readers doubt that this figure is Christ at all.
Some object that John would hardly have said of Christ "one like to the Son of man." The objection has no force. It is exactly what he does say in Revelation 1, where our Lord alone can be meant, beyond dispute. The likeness is to a character, not to a person.
He does not seize the kingdom. God gives it to Him — and the vision shows the Giver and the Receiver as two Persons.
The Ancient of days is the Son of man; but in this vision they are distinguished. It is often so in the Psalms. The Messiah is Jehovah; and yet in Psalm 110 Jehovah speaks to Adonai: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." It is the mystery of the divine Persons. They are distinguished in Daniel's vision because, as Son of man, our Lord receives everything from God. So, after He is brought to the Ancient of days, it says, "There was given Him a dominion."
In Revelation 1 John sees Christ and describes Him with the very features Daniel gave the Ancient of Days.
Head and hairs white like wool remind us of the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9. The Son of Man comes to Him with the clouds of Heaven, and receives all the rights and dignities of the Kingdom. But verse 22 of the same chapter lets us know that the Son of Man is Himself the Ancient of Days! ... So the Son of Man and the Ancient of Days are one!
Daniel is the Jewish prophet here; John, writing Revelation, is the Christian one.
The Jewish prophet sees Christ only as man. The Christian prophet sees Him as man, but as God as well.
The clearest evidence that this vision is about Christ came from His own lips.
Can there be any doubt that the Saviour had this prophecy in mind? He said to the high priest, "But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:64).
The vision does not end with one Man crowned. Others share what He receives.
In the third vision it is the Son of Man that comes with the clouds of heaven, and to Him is given the kingdom that will never pass away. Here we learn a further truth. The people of God of all ages — all those who through the history of the world have been in touch with heaven — will share with the Son of Man in His glorious reign.
- Beasts judged. God cuts down the four empires first; only then does the Man appear. The kingdom changes hands.
- A Man crowned. He comes as "one like the Son of man" — a wider title than Messiah, reaching to all nations. It is the change from Psalm 2 to Psalm 8, brought about by His rejection.
- A kingdom given. He does not grab it. He comes to the Ancient of Days and receives it, because as Man He takes everything from God.
- God Himself. Later in the chapter the Son of Man turns out to be the Ancient of Days, and John describes Him with the same features — Man and God in one Person.
- Never destroyed. His rule reaches all peoples and never ends — and the people of God of every age share it with Him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom [that] which shall not be destroyed.
Daniel has watched beast-like empires rise and rule the earth. Now a figure like a man comes to the Ancient of Days, and this verse says what He is given, who gives it, and how long it lasts.
World power looks impressive from the outside. This vision shows what it looks like to God.
Instead of the stone cut out of the mountain, you have the Son of Man Himself coming and taking the kingdom. But the general meaning of the visions is the same. It is striking, however, that in the seventh chapter you have not the image of man, such as the world sees, but what God sees. All the authority and power of this world is only that of the beast. Man in honour, without understanding, is like the beasts that perish. He is not even a man.
This is not one empire replacing another. The rule of the earth passes into the hands of a Man.
One like the Son of man is brought to the Ancient of days. There He receives the kingdom and universal dominion. It is the rule of Jehovah entrusted to man in the Person of Christ, put in the place of the kingdom of the beast. Notice that this is not the carrying out of the judgment spoken of earlier. It is the receiving of the earthly kingdom, for in all this the government of the earth is the subject.
Writers differ here. Some read the two figures as distinct in the vision.
The Jewish prophet sees Christ simply as man. The Christian prophet sees Him as man, but as God as well.
That leaves a question about the two figures in the vision.
As Ancient of Days, judgment is committed to His hands; as Son of Man He receives His kingdom. We think both are pictures of the same Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, seen in different settings.
The sceptre could have come from more than one hand. Daniel's night visions show which hand He would take it from.
He would take that sceptre neither from the devil nor from men, but from the hand of God only. We learn this from Daniel's night visions.
The same One who receives it here is the One earth threw out.
Rejected by men, the Son of Man was seen by Stephen standing at the right hand of God. There was the One whom God delighted to honour — Man in the highest place in heaven — the Son of Man glorified! From there He will soon be brought out in public, "with the clouds of heaven," as Daniel 7:13 foretells. He will receive dominion and glory over the earth — the very place where men treated Him so shamefully.
Three things mark this kingdom out: whose hand gives it, how far it reaches, and how long it lasts.
He receives His kingdom as Man from God, the Ancient of Days. His dominion is world-wide, taking in "all peoples, nations, and languages." His dominion will be everlasting. It will not, like other kingdoms, pass away. It will never be destroyed.
The word "everlasting" needs care. The prophets of Israel do not carry the story as far as the New Testament does.
No one will ever take it from Him, and no other power will follow Him. It will be everlasting in the sense of lasting as long as the world lasts. But strictly speaking, this is not an eternal scene. The Jewish prophets show you the millennium. They do not unfold what the New Testament does: that when all things are subdued to God, even the Father, God shall be all in all.
Daniel found this vision disturbing. It reads very differently for us.
What disturbed him may well encourage us. The beast-like empires of men will vanish in judgment. All dominion will belong to the Son of Man. Under Him, saints in heaven and saints on earth will exercise the authority He gives them.
- Given, not grabbed. The kingdom is placed in His hands by God; He refused every other route to the throne.
- Given to a Man. God puts the rule of the earth into the hands of a Man, Christ, in place of the kingdom of the beast.
- Given to the rejected One. The Man honoured in heaven is the One earth threw out, and He returns to reign where He was shamefully treated.
- Given without limit. It reaches all peoples, nations and languages, and lasts as long as the world lasts. The New Testament carries the story further still.
- Given to be shared. Saints in heaven and on earth will rule under Him. What disturbed Daniel encourages us.