Daniel's Visions in the Night (Part 3)

We're going to basically take up where we left off last time as we are studying through Daniel chapter 7.

! We're ready for the fourth beast in this dream of Daniel's or vision of Daniel's. Daniel's that he had at nighttime. I've called them his visions in the night.

They're quite strange. We've looked at the first three beasts and now we're ready for the fourth one. Remembering, even though we're going to say more about this as we go along, as we not only examine the vision itself, kind of the various details concerning each of the beasts, but also as we go further, hear the interpretation of it, what it all means.

Now we already know pretty much what the vision represents because it is a, though the vision is different, the visions are different, the images are different.

It parallels Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel chapter 2, the dream of the statue, you know, and all the various parts of it. So what each part of the statue represented, the four parts of Daniel's dream represent, same thing.

And they are the kingdoms of the world, starting with the Babylonian kingdom, then the Medo-Persian kingdom, after that the Greek kingdom or empire, and then finally the Roman empire.

And so beast number four, then, is what we're calling the strength of the Roman empire. The Roman empire. Terrible. Exceedingly strong.

It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.

And that's just really the beginning of what it looked like. I would say that's kind of a summation, maybe the first appearance, because some other things that Daniel saw when he saw this fourth beast.

I want us to, first of all, focus upon this description of this fourth beast. And so what can we say about it? Well, here's the first thing we can say about it. This beast was undefinable.

Undefinable. And what I mean is, unlike the previous three beasts, no animal name was given to this fourth beast. Remember, the first three beasts were likened to two animals that are recognizable.

The first one being a lion with eagle's wings, and the next one being what? Anybody remember? Leopards. Leopards. Eagle's wings? Yeah, with eagle's wings, with four heads.

And then the third one was a bear with ribs in its mouth. And so at least, you know, a lion, we can picture that.

Leopards, of course, we can picture that. And maybe not a four-headed one. But even that we could probably imagine. We've seen enough sci-fi movies, probably, to imagine a four-headed leopard.

And, you know, lions and leopards with wings and so forth. So that's not just way out there, you know. And, of course, the third one, we've all seen bears.

Some, maybe you've seen one up close. I mentioned last time that Daniel saw this bear raised up, and that's not a way you want to see a bear, especially a bear with ribs stuck between its teeth.

And so all of those, those three, those first three, you know, there's some, there's an animal that corresponds, a known animal that corresponds with what Daniel saw.

But, unlike those three, those previous three, there's no, there's nothing that corresponds. And Daniel said, it was different from all the beasts that were before it.

And that's only part of it. Not just different, but not even recognizable, no way to make any association. So the best, the beast itself defied any zoological category, and this is really the idea.

It defied any zoological category known to Daniel, or to us today, for that matter. All right, so the beast was undefinable.

Couldn't define it, that is, in terms of names, a name of an animal. Also, the beast was, we could say, indescribable.

Although, you say, well, Daniel did describe it. Well, he described it best he could. I can imagine that if we had been Daniel, and we saw this thing, we might grope for words to describe what we saw.

And we just have to find some words in our vocabulary that come as close as possible, you know. And so what he saw is really, in a sense, indescribable.

It defied any standard description for any, any living thing. And so Daniel did the best he could. And then I can say, thirdly, that the beast, and you would agree with this, was undesirable.

That's certainly undesirable. Really frightening. And so here, let's just kind of look at the description. And there's several words, a bunch of words here.

In fact, I count up about eight parts to this description. In verse 7, one we'll draw from verse 19. But first of all, it was dreadful.

That's the word that is used in the New King James. It was dreadful. Verse 19 gives another very similar description. And there, the Bible says exceedingly dreadful.

So not just dreadful, but exceedingly dreadful. And the very word means to strike fear in our minds. So this is a very fearful thing, fearful sight.

And I don't know, you know, I'm trying to think the last time I had a dream that seemed so real to me. You've had dreams that are so real, maybe not always scary.

But you wake up and say, boy, that was so vivid, so real. Can you imagine this dream, this vision, not shadowy, you know, vague, because this is a vision from God.

So you know that it was very vivid, very detailed. And so when he saw each of these beasts coming out of the stormy, you know, the wind and the stormy sea, each one coming out and each one being a little bit more bizarre, and then finally this fourth one, and it's so vivid, so clear.

It was dreadful. It was very, fear in his heart. It was also terrible. Now we might think that those words are, you know, maybe synonyms to some degree.

But the word terrible really is even more, it's not just the mind, but the heart.

So there's not only fearful in the mind, striking fear in your mind and your thinking, but to strike terror in your heart.

So this is a very strong description. And this is how Daniel reacted to what he saw. Dreadful, terrible. And then it says it had huge iron teeth.

Now, honestly, I'm not sure how you could tell it was iron, just in a dream. But it had a certain look, I guess, and you would look at it and say, well, that's metal.

And it looks just like iron, you know, like a, you know, I don't know if it was stainless steel or cast iron or what. I'm not really sure in terms of metallurgy what they had in that day.

Maybe they didn't have stainless steel, I don't know, they might have. Anyway, he looked at it and it's iron. So his teeth and they're, how big?

They're huge. Huge. Yeah. Iron teeth. And why would you need huge iron teeth?

Well, you need them to chew up flesh and bone. That's the idea. Yeah. So he's looking at an animal that has the kind of teeth that could really chew through anything. And that's the idea of this beast.

Because remember, well, because I've already mentioned it and we'll talk more about it as we go along. This represents the Roman Empire. And the Roman Empire is known for iron, its strength.

And the Roman soldiers wore iron boots and so forth. So there wasn't anything that could withstand them.

And it's like iron teeth that are able to chew through even rock. Okay. Any kind of material. The hardest of substances. All right. So it was dreadful, terrible, huge iron teeth.

And then it was devouring. Well, yeah. Would be. Iron teeth. It could devour anything. Devouring. Devouring. That is to completely consume its prey is the idea.

And it was breaking in pieces. Breaking in pieces. That is to tear it apart. Tearing apart its prey into pieces.

Into small little pieces. Just completely devouring. All right. Let's go on. And it was trampling the residue with its feet.

Trampling the residue with its feet. That means to pulverize under its feet the fragments not eaten. So you can imagine some very huge, powerful, carnivorous animal chewing up its prey.

And some of the parts of it fall to the ground. And its big, huge feet are trampling it, trampling on it, and pulverizing it to dust so that there's nothing even left.

And this is quite a description. And symbolic of something very strong and very terrible and something very, very savage, really.

All right. So and then it says, and it had ten horns. All right. Now we're going to, of course, discover that the ten horns are very significant in the image in this fourth beast.

Just like the ten toes were very significant in Nebuchadnezzar's vision of that statue. We'll talk more about that later. But just the vision itself and the beast that Daniel saw, the ten horns, of course, I mean, if you've got an animal that has horns, the horns are used to gore its victims.

And so if you've got a couple of them, that's bad enough, but you've got ten, then that makes you quite formidable as a predator, as an animal, very dangerous.

So ten horns. And so we can begin to kind of, I don't have my picture, but you wouldn't have to have a picture to try to begin to form some kind of an image in your mind about what Daniel was looking at.

And there's one other feature of this creature, this beast, that's not included there in verse 7. You have to go to chapter, verse 19, rather, where the details, where the details of the vision are being interpreted.

And so you have, you know, kind of a repeat of some of this description. And in verse 19, we have this part of it. It had nails or claws.

Nails, that doesn't quite do it justice, but that's the word that is used in the New King James. I think it's the NIV, both the NIV, excuse me, yeah, NIV, but also the ESV and New American Standard that uses the word claws.

And that's certainly the idea. But these are claws of bronze, so another metal. Claws made out of metal. And so what does the animal do with its claws?

It grabs things and holds them so it can chew it. It lacerates its victim into pieces. I'm, you know, trying to be as descriptive as I can.

So this is what Daniel saw, verse 7, initially. Now he sees more, and we'll get to that. But what I'm trying to do here tonight, we're going to take our time on this chapter because, again, remember, it is a key chapter, the key chapter, in the book of Daniel.

So, albeit it does parallel chapter 2. But this one really goes a lot further. You remember, by the way, in chapter 2, first there's that image, and then it's destroyed by a rock.

And that, of course, is Christ and the destruction of these kingdoms and especially the last kingdom. But in chapter 7, we're going to have a whole lot more said about the destruction of this final fourth and final kingdom.

A whole lot said about that and who will be doing it and what will happen as a result. So that's why this chapter is so key. So I want us to get in our minds this image of this fourth beast and then begin to, you know, to talk about what it is representing, symbolic of.

And that kingdom that, well, for us has come and, in a sense, still exists. And it's the Roman Empire. All right, so the beast was undefinable, nothing like it in the animal kingdom.

Indescribable, so weird that it defied human description. Undesirable, because it was grotesque and monstrous and fearful and terrifying and, you know, about, you know, several dozen adjectives that we could use for it.

And then this beast was indiscernible. Indiscernible. Indiscernible in this sense. What did it represent?

And, you know, the first three we, you know, Daniel, I think, understood. But this fourth one was so strange and so different that it was, to some extent, undiscernible to me.

Didn't understand it. So verse 19 says, then I wish to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others. So Daniel wanted to know the truth about this fourth one.

And now, verse 19, of course, that's kind of skipping ahead. I'm not going to, you know, somehow leave out the verses in between there. But verse 19 comes after the angel, in verse 17, reveals that the fourth beast represents, or the four beasts rather represent the four kingdoms.

Now, we already know that because, well, we know from our own study of it and reading of it. But you also know it because I've mentioned it half a dozen times. They represent the four kingdoms.

And so I say that this beast was indiscernible because Daniel knew about the first two kingdoms, didn't he? He knew about them.

I mean, he lived through them. Well, not all the way through the second one, but he was living in it at some point. So he knew the first two kingdoms. Babylonian Empire, that's the first beast.

Medo-Persian Empire, that's the second beast. Even though when he had this vision, it was before the beginning of the Medo-Persian Empire, but it existed. It had not yet conquered Babylon, but he could see, you know, out into the future the possibility, as they were becoming stronger and stronger, that they would one day be a formidable enemy for the Babylonians.

And so he knew about those two kingdoms, and he could see how the first two beasts were visibly symbolic of these two empires. You know, the lion, symbolic of the Babylonian Empire.

The four heads of the leopard, symbolic in many ways of the Medo-Persian Empire. And Daniel also could imagine, I think, the rise of the Greek Empire.

I think you could imagine that. Even though they, you know, still a little ways out yet, but it would be, I think, 70, 80 years before the Greeks would conquer the Persian Empire and become the world power of the day.

So 70, 80 years yet, Daniel certainly was not going to be alive then. But even 70, 80 years, there was, you know, he could see the possibility of that third beast or that third empire.

And also, I think you could say that the third beast was enough like the previous beasts that it didn't defy Daniel's imagination.

He could imagine, you know, that third beast and that third empire. And perhaps he could connect the third beast with some rising power in the world of his day.

But the fourth beast, something totally different. It was unimaginable. And therefore, in trying to make a connection in his mind with some kingdom, it was undiscernible.

And so Daniel had to ask about it. That's why he said, I wish to know the truth about the fourth beast. So Daniel could not have known anything about the coming empire, that particular coming empire in the world.

He could not have known anything about that. And Daniel could not have had any knowledge of a Roman empire, an empire that began to seize control of the world over 300 years after Daniel.

I mean, that's way out there. No way could Daniel imagine that. And yet, you know, more importantly, Daniel could not imagine an empire as savage and as strong and also as large as that empire, the Roman empire, which was represented by the fourth beast.

All right. So that leads us then. This beast was undestroyable. Undestroyable. At least from an earthly perspective.

From any earthly measure. It was its strength. There was no way to destroy it. Verse 7. It was different from all the beasts that were before it.

Different. Different in every way. Not just the beast itself. But what it represented. The empire, the kingdom that that beast represented. The previous three beasts were conquered by successive greater beasts, weren't they?

You had the first beast, Babylonians, conquered by a greater beast, Medo-Persians, conquered only by an even greater beast or kingdom.

The Alexander the Great and the Greek kingdom. But this fourth one was different. And so seemingly, no world power could conquer this beast.

And historically, by the way, the Roman empire never was defeated. You say there's no Roman empire today.

Well, in the technical sense of the word, you're right. But the Roman empire was never defeated and destroyed by a greater empire.

Like the previous three, you know, the Babylonians defeated and replaced by the Medo-Persians. And the Medo-Persians defeated and replaced by the Greeks.

And then the Greeks defeated and replaced by the Romans. But there has never been an empire greater that defeated the Roman Empire. You say, well, what happened to it? Well, it became Christian.

It was Christianized. It became Christian. And it ultimately became the Holy Roman Empire. And then later divided into two empires.

And one was pretty much consumed by the Muslims. And now we have the Roman Empire, in a sense, which is represented by the Roman Catholic Church today.

So that's what happened in the Roman Empire. Now, that's important because the Roman Empire still exists. And at the end of the age, it will become powerful again.

And it will be destroyed by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why this chapter is so key. And it's why it's so important for us to understand, you know, there are four kingdoms.

And there's not a fifth. And so it means that Roman Empire still exists in some sense. But it will be conquered.

And there's not going to be a fifth one after it. That is no worldly kingdom. You know, in the sense of generated from the world, there will be a kingdom. Fifth and final one is the kingdom of our Lord who will be on this earth.

All right. So just remember that. And we'll probably, I will probably mention that, you know, quite a few more times as we go along. Because we're really just kind of getting into this.

But I want us to get this fourth beast here in our minds. So, all right. So, think of the Roman Empire long before it became Christianized.

Okay. In that generic sense of the term. By the second century BC, the Roman Empire had superseded Greece and became the dominant world power.

The Roman Empire did. And with incredible might, unparalleled in world history, incredible might and mixed with cruelty, Rome began to systematically conquer not just the former Greek Empire, but even beyond that.

Nations were crushed under the iron boots of the Roman Empire, under the iron boots of Roman legions.

And its power was virtually irresistible. It really was. No one could withstand the strength and might of the Roman Empire.

And so, its territory and its influence in the world far surpassed all the other three kingdoms that preceded it.

The major kingdoms of the world. All right. And one more. This beast was indefensible. That is, there was nothing good about it.

I use the word in that sense. Nothing good about this kingdom. Certainly nothing godly. I mean, it was a pagan, idolatrous kingdom.

You know, the Greek and Persian and Babylonians before them, they were too. But the Romans, they were pagan, wicked.

And think of all that they did as they conquered lands and spread around the known world. And the height of their wickedness was to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, it's indefensible. So, let me go back to verse 7. The last few words of verse 7 and on into verse 8. And it had ten horns.

And I was considering the horns. So, here's Daniel. He's seeing this beast, you know. And it's already been described. You know, it's pretty horrifying.

Frightening. And so, he gets that first look at it. And then he starts to look a little closer. And I'm considering. He says, I'm considering. I was considering the horns. And there was another horn.

A little one. Coming up among them. Among the ten horns. Before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots.

And there in this horn. This little horn that's growing. In this horn were eyes. Like the eyes of a man.

And a mouth speaking. Speaking pompous words. Or boastful words. We'll talk about these ten horns a little bit later.

But the ten horns represent ten kings. Or kingdoms. Ten kings. Just like, again.

Just like the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image. That he dreamt. Ten toes. Ten horns. Alright. So, you see. Easy to see the parallel.

But then something quite strange takes place. Daniel sees another horn. That's how he puts it. Verse 8. Another horn. And he further describes it as a little horn.

Alright. So, the little horn represents the rise of another king. Obviously.

I mean, if the horn represents a king. Then the little one represents another king. The rise of another king. Or another kingdom.

So, let's just kind of break this down. This is the best way to do it. And take each of the words that Daniel uses to describe this. First of all, horn.

I've already mentioned this. But it refers to a king. Horn refers to a king. The word horn. Now, if you were to look it up in a dictionary.

The word that appears here in the Hebrew text. It would say musical instrument. You know. So, it's not some unique word here. That actually has the meaning of a king.

The word actually means a musical instrument. Something here. You know. A little horn. But. The word horn is often used.

And especially in apocalyptic literature. Revelation. Of things not yet revealed. Apocalyptic. The horn is often used in the Bible.

To be a symbol of power. Power. And you know. Even in ancient times. And even kind of in medieval times. A kingdom's army.

It would attack at. You know. At the sound. Or the unique sound. Of its horn. That's very common. And. Each one.

Each kingdom had. Kind of its own sound. Of a horn. And. The horn would call to arms. Or call to attack. Or call for rescue. Or whatever it is.

And it represented. That empire. And the strength. The strength of that empire. And so. We don't have to speculate. Whether the horn represents kings here.

Because. It says so right there. In the chapter. A couple times. Several times. As the angel later is interpreting. Daniel's dream.

The horn is. Represents king. And represents power. So. But what about the word little. Little.

Refers to its size. I guess you. Wow. You probably didn't imagine that. But I need to go a step further. And you've got this in your notes. It refers to its size.

At the beginning. Because as Daniel's looking at this. Little horn. It's getting bigger. As he looks at it. So. This is how. This is probably why he's.

You know. Looking a little closer. At this image. Because he sees these ten horns. And then suddenly there's one. Another horn that pops up. And it's little. But it's just little at its beginning. Because.

The phrase. The phrase. Coming up among them. Coming up among them. Signifies. Its rise. Its rise to power. Its rise to power.

Now we're going to. Talk. A whole lot more about. You know. How we connect this with. You know. History.

Though we can only go so far. Because this is still future. And there's been a whole lot of speculation. Quite honestly. And you can read. You know. A number of books. A number of books that I have.

And I've looked at. And I say. You know. I don't know. How they get that. From all this. You know. But it's speculation. But anyway. Let's go on with the image.

So. It's coming up. It's rising to power. And. Then the three. Of the first horns. Were plucked out by. The roots. That phrase.

Obviously suggests. That this new kingdom. This new horn. Had become larger. And more powerful. Than the original ten. Verse 20.

Even says. If we were to skip forward. To verse 20. Again. When we get into. The angels interpretation. Of the dream. Some of it. Is rehearsed.

The image itself. Is rehearsed for us. And there. It says. He was greater. Than his fellows. So this. This horn. That is. Rising up. And.

Plucking out. Three of the other horns. He's greater. He's greater. Than. All the other ten. Ten horns. And then.

Again. The phrase. Plucked out. By the roots. I mean. That. That denotes. A violent. Overthrow. Of these other three kingdoms. Of.

Not just conquering them. But absolutely. Totally destroying them. All right. Now. You know. Can't make any parallel. With history. Yet. Not.

At least we can't. And. Be scriptural. We can make some speculations. We'll. Maybe do some of that later. All right. So eventually. Then. The empire.

Symbolized. By the ten horns. Now. It's ten horns. But still one. Empire. The empire. Symbolized. By the ten horns.

Comes. Under the full control. Of this little horn. All right. Then we have. This. You know. Not only.

Was this horn. Popping up. On the head of this. Hideous beast. But this horn. Had eyes. It said. And this is what.

Daniel saw. Eyes like the eyes. Of a man. And. There. There. Is a. I forgot to. Put this down. I think it may have been.

Zechariah. But. There's a parallel. For this. This expression. This. This kind of metaphor. Eyes. Like the eyes. Of a man. Doesn't mean. It just simply had eyeballs.

It means more than that. It is symbolic. It is symbolic. It is a symbolic reference. To this new. King's. Intelligence. Talking about. Intelligence. And wisdom.

This. This. King. That. Is rising up. Is. Very. Shrewd. Very. Wise. Very smart. Very intelligent.

And. Finally. A mouth. Speaking. Pompous. Words. Is. Of course. A reference. To. This. King's. Arrogance. Arrogant.

And. Boastful. Words. Is. The idea. And. Boastful. Or. Arrogant. Word. I mean. Who is he speaking. These words to? Well. It doesn't tell us.

Here. In. This particular verse. But. If we go forward. Verse 25. Then. We. Know. That later. That. It says. That.

This king. Shall speak. Pompous. Really. Blasphemous. Words. Against. The most high. That's in verse 25.

All right. So. He's speaking. Pompous. Words. Boastful. Words. And. Speaking. Them. To. The most high. Who's that? Well. It's God.

Of course. The ancient of days. That we'll be. Looking at. Next time. All right. By the way. We know who this is.

Don't we? Now. We don't have a name. The antichrist. Yeah. The antichrist. It's the antichrist. All right. So. What are we talking about here?

We're talking about the horrific specifics of Daniel's vision. That's. By the way. The point that we're under. Even though. We're. We're a couple of sub points into it. So. We began with the striving winds and stormy waves in Daniel's vision.

Then we're talking now about the strange walkers. In Daniel's vision. And then. Next time. We'll talk about the. The slain.

Wicked. Because this kingdom that arises. It's. It's. It's going to be. Destroyed. And. It'll be destroyed at the coming. Of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you.