Another Dream from God. Books of Daniel and Revelation.

 Continued from previous post:

This timeline of world history was so important that God repeated it three times and in each of them God added a little more detail.  In Daniel Chapter 7, while Daniel was still living under the Babylonian Empire, God gave him a dream. 

…the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.  And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.  The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle.  I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it.  And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear.  And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’…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…and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth.  It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns…behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.   Daniel 7:2-8

Daniel saw the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea (for an explanation of prophetic symbols see Appendix 2).  Out of this great sea there came four beasts corresponding to the four metals making up the statue Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. 

 The first was a lion that had wings like an eagle (signifying the speed with which the beast could move).  It had its wings plucked and it was given a human mind.  Babylon stopped conquering other nations and felt secure in its power, becoming decadent and complacent, losing the attributes of a preying lion and instead becoming the prey.

The lion was replaced by a lop-sided bear (signifying that one side was stronger than the other) with three ribs in its mouth (signifying the three geographical areas it ‘devoured’: its own lands of Media and Persia, lands the Babylonian Empire once ruled, and new lands such as Anatolia).

The bear was replaced by a leopard with four wings (signifying even greater speed of movement) and four heads (Alexander’s empire divided among his four generals).

 And finally a fourth beast, Rome, which was terrifying and extremely strong, had iron teeth and crushed the other beasts. 

Following all these beasts and horns Daniel saw Jesus returning to the earth and setting up his kingdom. 

I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like the Son of Man was coming…His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away…  Daniel 7:13, 14 

Daniel’s dream reinforces what we have already studied: Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, mixture of nations, and finally God’s kingdom.

But there is something new in this vision.  As we have seen, the fourth beast, Rome, had ten horns on its head.  As Daniel was looking at the horns a little horn popped up, pushing three of the original horns out by the roots.  This new horn had eyes and a mouth and was yapping and boasting about itself.  As Daniel was seeing this, someone standing next to him said that the horn was also speaking out against God and persecuting the saints (Dan. 7:25).  

We know that Rome destroyed Jerusalem and persecuted Christians, even throwing them into the arena to be torn apart by wild beasts.  But what is this horn, which three horns did it rip out by the roots, and why are its persecutions and boasts so huge that it is worth mentioning in prophecy?  We will uncover this mystery in later chapters, so for now just keep this mouthy, blasphemous horn in the back of your mind.