The
Two things are depicted in
the statue of Daniel chapter two. From the human perspective these kingdoms
that are viewed as being valuable, as being made of the important metals, have
an attractiveness to them that appeals to men. In contrast, we look at the
image of the kingdoms of man in Daniel chapter seven and they are pictured as
being bestial, and so they are bestial from God’s perspective. They are
pictured by these man-eating animals that destroy humanity, even though they
talk a lot about valuing mankind and doing all that they can for the people,
and all the other slogans that we hear. They ultimately destroy humanity. All
kingdoms tend to be costly to true liberty and true freedom.
But the other thing that we
should notice from the image in Daniel chapter two is that the kingdoms of man
are represented as one image. That is because there is a continuity that
extends throughout the kingdoms of man, they are all just different
manifestations of that same kingdom of man that seeks to establish himself back
in Genesis chapter eleven with the
Daniel 7:23 NASB
“Thus he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which
will be different from all the {other} kingdoms and will devour the whole earth
and tread it down and crush it’.” In verse 17 it said that these four beasts
are four kings, but in verse 23 the fourth beast is not called the fourth king,
it is called the fourth kingdom. Then v. 24, “As for the ten horns, out of this
kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be
different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.” The point is
that kings and kingdoms are used interchangeably. This is important, especially
when we get to the section in Revelation dealing with the head wound of the
Antichrist. People are doing some strange things today with some of this. They
will say it is a king or it is a kingdom and if they interpret the head as a
kingdom as opposed to a king then the head wound is not interpreted to be a
personal fatal wound but it is interpreted to be the death of a nation or
kingdom and the resurrection of a kingdom. That is one of the things that is
part of this view called the Assyrian Antichrist because they are arguing that
there is going to be a resurrection of the Assyrian kingdom that will be part
of the revived
Daniel chapter seven is the
vision of the four beasts. Daniel chapter eight is going to narrow the focus a
little and we see a vision of two animals, a ram and a goat. The ram represents
the Medo-Persian empire and the goat represents the Greek empire. Daniel 8:3, 4
NASB “Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram which had
two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now the two horns {were} long,
but one {was} longer than the other, with the longer one coming up last.
There is a further
development of this in the interpretation, vv. 19-21 NASB “He said,
‘Behold, I am going to let you know what will occur at the final period of the
indignation, for {it} pertains to the appointed time of the end.
Daniel 7:6 NASB
“After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had
on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion
was given to it.” It is the leopard, a fast moving animal, and the four wings,
that depict the speed of the conquest of Alexander the Great. The four heads
are going to represent the fourfold division that occurs in the Greek empire
when Alexander dies and four of his generals split the kingdom. Ptolemy took
control of
Daniel 8:5 NASB “While
I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west [Alexander] over
the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground; and the goat {had}
a conspicuous horn between his eyes. [6] He came up to the ram that had the two
horns [Media-Persia], which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and
rushed at him in his mighty wrath. [7] I saw him come beside the ram, and he
was enraged at him; and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the
ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled
on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power. [8] Then the male
goat magnified {himself} exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large
horn was broken; and in its place there came up four conspicuous {horns} toward
the four winds of heaven. [9] Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn
which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the
Beautiful {Land.}” This is where start to look to the little horn, Antiochus
Epiphanes, the type of the Antichrist. [10] “It grew up to the host of heaven…”
A picture of the angels, indicating his enormous arrogance in thinking he can
rule over the angels. “… and caused some of the host and some of the stars to
fall to the earth, and it trampled them down.” This parallels what we have seen
in Revelation chapter twelve where halfway through the Tribulation Satan casts
down a third of the angels to the earth. Here we are talking about Satan who is
the power behind Antiochus Epiphanes. [11] “It even magnified {itself} to be
equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from
Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down.” So the human leader is
exalting himself. He is empowered by Satan and he is exalting himself to be as
great as Satan. [12] “And on account of transgression the host will be given
over {to the horn} along with the regular sacrifice; and it will fling truth to
the ground and perform {its will} and prosper. [13] Then I heard a holy one
speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking,
‘How long will the vision {about} the regular sacrifice apply, while the
transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to
be trampled?’ [14] He said to me, ‘For 2,300 evenings {and} mornings; then the
holy place will be properly restored’.” That relates to historical fulfillment
under Antiochus Epiphanes.
Daniel