From our Sunday service on June 22, 2025, Daniel 7. This is part 7 of our Daniel series. Watch the full message: The Ancient of Days – Daniel Series #7 on YouTube.
Daniel 7 is a sweeping vision of world empires and of God’s plan to establish an eternal kingdom over them all. In the first year of Belshazzar, Daniel has a dream and writes the sum of the matters. The application comes right off the bat: Christians are reminded not to place our ultimate trust in human governments. Human governments follow the ideas of the flesh and satisfy the needs of the flesh, while God tells us to focus on the needs of the soul and the heart. Human governments are not protected from corruption or instability the way the word of God is. God’s word is not a political sea that blows you around left and right. It is a stable, fixed standard that we can follow. That is why we should not hitch our hope to the next empire, the next election, or the next strong man. Those will rise and fall like the beasts Daniel saw. The word of God will not.
The Four Beasts
Why animals? Because kingdoms are wild, fleshly human constructs. Kings want to make themselves rich. They oppress. They do whatever they need to do to stay in power. A lion, a leopard, and a bear are wild and uncontrolled. Bears do not form an LLC. They act on instinct. These kingdoms are not following the Spirit of God. They are following the flesh to the point that they are like wild animals.
The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. The lion with eagle’s wings represents Babylon, and specifically Nebuchadnezzar. The lion was the animal of Babylon, engraved over all kinds of things. Nebuchadnezzar was lifted up on wings, and God allowed him to bring the kingdoms together into a great empire. But he was lifted up in pride, and God plucked his wings. For those years he was like a wild animal wandering in the wilderness. Then he was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on his feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to him. At the end of that story his man’s heart returned.
The second beast was like a bear, raised up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth. The bear represents the Medes and the Persian Empire. They were one empire, but two distinct groups. The Medes are the two back paws on the ground, and the Persians are the two front paws in the air. The bear is on its feet ready to strike. The three ribs in its mouth show that it has already made its attack.
The third was like a leopard, with four wings of a fowl and four heads. At the time Daniel wrote, this was still in the future. It would be the Macedonians, led by Alexander the Great. A leopard is smaller than a lion, but it is faster and attacks from out of sight. The Macedonians were not the biggest empire, but they came out of nowhere, attacked rapidly, and quickly conquered the Medes and the Persians. Was Alexander’s campaign moral? No. It was a wild, ravenous leopard following human instinct. But God says He has prophecies to fulfill, and they are a tool He can use to get there.
The fourth beast is so terrifying that Daniel does not say it resembles any other animal. It is diverse from all the beasts before it, dreadful and terrible, with great iron teeth, and it had ten horns. This indescribable kingdom would be the Roman Empire. If you remember Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue, Rome was represented by iron. That is how we know this is Rome. The ten horns match the ten toes of iron and clay in that vision. Even before the fall of the Roman Empire, there were Christians who said Rome would fall apart and ten kingdoms would come out of it, with which the rest of prophecy would be fulfilled. Two hundred years after one of them said that, Rome fell and was split into multiple kingdoms. These ten horns are the ten kingdoms Rome is divided into, led by ten leaders, not necessarily kings. This is talking about the concept of Rome and its government, not only a single city.
Then a little horn comes up among them, before whom three of the first horns are plucked up by the roots. This horn has eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. It represents not just a kingdom but a specific person who will come out of these ten kingdoms and knock out three of them.
The Courtroom of Heaven
I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream 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 7:9–10
This is a courtroom being set up. “The thrones were cast down” does not mean they were thrown. It means they were placed, set, and appointed. You cannot have a courtroom without somewhere for everybody to sit. We are looking at the end times, at how God is going to end things. The Ancient of days did sit. This is God, the one who is the oldest. He has been here since before time began, and there is nobody older than Him. He is the ancient of the ancient, and He will endure forever.
The Son of Man
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, 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 7:13–14
While the kingdoms hold the peace, the Son of Man arrives. That is Jesus Christ. All the kingdoms up to this point were animals, representing human flesh, the animal instinct to do what feels good. Now who arrives? Not another beast, but the Son of Man, one who walks after the Spirit. As mankind descends to be more like the animal, God descends to become more like man to do something about it. One day He would arrive and restrain mankind’s sinful chaos, and His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away.
Many Antichrists
Sometimes prophecies have double fulfillments. In the Old Testament, a prophet had one shot. Any prophet who gave a false prophecy was immediately put to death. So God had to make a way to give prophecy about the distant future. Take “a virgin shall conceive a child,” which God gave to Isaiah. Jesus was not coming for a really long time, and Isaiah had only so much time before the people would say he was a false prophet. So God said, Use a specific wording. Use the Hebrew word for a young woman, which implies a virgin, and we will double-fulfill the prophecy. In the next chapter, Isaiah fulfills the prophecy of a young woman conceiving, because his wife gives birth to a son. That protected him from being put to death. The antichrist is one of those double fulfillments. The New Testament tells us there will be many antichrists before the antichrist, and even in this story we see a few people who act like antichrists. One was Belshazzar in Babylon.
Keeping the Matter in Our Hearts
“Hitherto is the end of the matter.” Daniel’s cogitations much troubled him, and his countenance changed in him. Kingdoms are going to come and fall apart, and the world is going to fall apart time and time again. But that is not where it ends. “But I kept the matter in my heart.” Today, that is what we need to do. Although all the chaos goes on, with kingdoms warring, splitting, prospering, and falling, eventually the Ancient of days will carry out His final judgment. The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away the horn’s dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. We need to remember not the chaos that the vision starts with, but the eternal kingdom that it ends with. One day the kingdom is going to come, and those who are not ready are going to miss out. That should challenge us to invite people into this kingdom and to put their faith in God. It is easy to get fixated on trying to figure out the when and where of the last days, but like Daniel, we will never have all the answers. When you get home, do not try to read prophecy in the news or your social media feeds. Focus instead on being the faithful servant who in the end will inherit the kingdom in God’s timing. Will you keep this matter in your heart, and place your trust in God’s kingdom rather than in the kingdoms of men?
Recent Comments