What picture was brought before him in his night vision?
What was seen to come from the stormy sea?
What was the appearance of the first beast? What peculiarity did the prophet observe about it?
What changes appeared while the prophet was looking?
What was the appearance of the second beast? What was its position? What special circumstance was noted about it? What command was given to it?
What was the appearance of the third beast? What was the first peculiarity noted? The second?
What was given to this third beast?
What three adjectives are used to describe the fourth beast? What did it have?
What was the fourth beast seen to do?
How did it compare with the other beasts?
What marked peculiarity was noted about the fourth beast?
What change took place as the prophet was watching the horns? How was this change brought about?
What two particulars are given in describing the appearance of this little horn?
Notes.
The first year of Belshazzar was 540 B.C. It was formerly supposed that Belshazzar was the same as Nabonadius in secular history, whose reign began in 555 B.C. (hence the date in the margin), but later researches have proved that Belshazzar was the son of Nabonadius, and that his reign dated from 540 B.C.
More than sixty years have, therefore, passed away since Daniel interpreted the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, as recorded in the second chapter of Daniel. In the meantime great changes have taken place in the kingdom of Babylon, and the great empire is approaching its end.
Daniel’s vision, as recorded in this seventh chapter, stands, evidently, in close relationship to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the second chapter. The language of this vision makes it plain, and the common consent of the Protestant interpreters emphasizes the fact, that the four beasts of this chapter represent the same four kingdoms as were represented in the different parts of the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The lion is Babylon, the bear is Medo-Persia, the leopard is Grecia, the great and terrible beast is Rome. But, as in the second chapter, the chief purpose of the dream was not to set forth the mere fact that there would be four world-kingdoms, so in this vision these four kingdoms are again brought forward, not merely to state their place in history, but in order to locate definitely the territory, the time, and the work of a kingdom small in territorial dimensions, but world-wide in power—the kingdom of antichrist. This will appear more plainly as we proceed with the lessons.
Historical Extracts.
“In the vision of the first year of Belshazzar, these four empires are symbolized by the four great beasts—the lion, the bear, the leopard, and the great and terrible nondescript beast. The lion of the vision in the first year of Belshazzar, therefore, corresponds to the head of gold of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and consequently represents Babylon.”
“Being first ‘a lion with eagle’s wings,’ it well represents the mighty power and swiftness of the conquests of the Babylon of the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Then it was ‘that bitter and hasty nation,’ whose horses were ‘swifter than the leopards,’ and whose horsemen should ‘fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.’ And afterward the same lion, with his wings plucked, and lifted up from the earth, and made to stand on his feet as a man, with a man’s heart, well represents the same kingdom of Babylon shorn of its vigor, its power, and its majesty, as it was after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, through the reigns of the five weak and wicked kings whom we have been obliged to notice in that period.”
“As the lion corresponds to the head of gold of the great image, and so represents Babylon, so the bear of this vision corresponds to the ‘other kingdom inferior’ to Babylon, represented in the breast and arms of silver of the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Then in the vision of the third year of Belshazzar, which occurred in the very last days of Babylon, just as it was about to pass away, only three symbols are used—the ram, the goat, and the little horn which became ‘exceeding great;’ and the first of these is plainly declared by the angel to be ‘the kings of Media and Persia.’ This demonstrates, therefore, that the kingdom of the Medes and Persians was represented by the symbol of the bear, and was the one referred to when Daniel, in explanation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great image, said to him, ‘After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee.’” (“Great Empires of Prophecy,” page 35.)
“Another symbol of this third, or Grecian, empire is a leopard having four wings. The symbol of the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar was a lion with eagle’s wings, signifying that in the rapidity of his conquests he would ‘fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.’ The four wings upon the leopard could signify nothing less. And so it was with Alexander; for ‘from Macedonia to the Ganges, very near to which Alexander marched, is computed at least eleven hundred leagues. Add to this the various turnings in Alexander’s marches, . . . we shall find that Alexander, in less than eight years, marched his army upward of seventeen hundred leagues, without including his return to Babylon.’” (Id., page 185.)
“The boundaries of the actual conquests of the Roman armies—the limits to which the Roman soldiers actually marched and conquered—were marked by the Tigris, the Danube, the Rhine, the Firth of Forth, the Atlantic Ocean, the Desert of Sahara, the Desert of Arabia, and the Persian Gulf. And Gibbon’s elegant lines alone would mark in Rome the fulfilment of the prophecy of ‘the fourth kingdom:’ ‘The arms of the republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the ocean; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome.’” (Id. page 319.)
