Dear Pastor Ron: continuation of the Daniel 7 prophecy, Pt. 3

        We saw in the previous article that the four beasts Daniel dreamt about were the four kingdoms that ruled the ancient world beginning with Babylon and terminating with the Roman empire. Notice in verse 19 that the fourth beast, the Roman empire, had ten horns. This is similar to Daniel 2’s description of the fourth kingdom, the Roman empire, which broke up into ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s image. 

        We saw that these ten toes represented the European nations that came out of the destroyed Roman empire. Similarly, the ten crowns in Daniel 7 represent the ten kingdoms that arose from the fall of the Roman empire. Notice that verse 24 says that ‘the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.’ Up to this point, the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel two and Daniel’s dream in chapter 7 is a repetition of the same historical events that depict the reigns of the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. 

        While in Daniel 2 the account went on to depict the return of Christ in days of the divided Roman Empire, in Daniel 7 this vision takes us into finer historical details that take place before Jesus returns to earth. Notice in verse 8 another little horn comes up from among the ten horns. If the horns are, as shown in verse 24, kings or kingdoms, then the other little horn that comes up among the other kings must be a ruler as well. Verse 8 goes on to tell us that this little horn or ruler destroyed three horns or kings as it became a force to be reckoned with. This horn also had eyes like a man and a mouth speaking great words or speaking greatly.

        The Aramaic word for ‘great’ here gives the understanding of many arrogant, pompous things spoken by this entity who appears as a ruler or chief. Before moving on with this little horn let’s sum up the vision up to this point. In Daniel 7 the prophet gets a dream or a vision. He sees four beasts, a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a nondescript beast. The beast had ten horns with ten crowns, a crown per horn. From among the ten horns comes up another little horn that destroys three horns in its wake and speaks mighty and pompous things. Because of Daniel 2’s dream that the king had, and because of its interpretation by the prophet Daniel, we are able to see that the beasts of Daniel 7 are a representation of the four parts of the image of the king’s dream in Daniel 2.

        In other words, the head of gold equals the lion of Daniel 7; the breast and arms of silver equal the bear of Daniel 7; the belly and thighs of brass equal the leopard of Daniel 7; and the legs of iron equals the fourth beast of Daniel 7. The ten toes of the image equal the ten horns in Daniel 7. Just as the Roman empire dissolved into ten kingdoms, in Daniel 7 we have the equivalent of ten horns or ten kingdoms. In Daniel 2 the prophecy ends with the coming of Jesus to renew the earth and save His people.

        But in Daniel 7 the prophecy introduces additional detail that Daniel 2 left out. Daniel 7 adds another little horn, arising from among the ten horns; and this little horn spoke great words, meaning proud, pompous words. Who is this? In our next article, we will explore this little horn that was proud, haughty, and pompous, more fully.

        May God bless you all. Pastor Ron Henderson is a retired Seventh-day Adventist Pastor.  You may reach him at ron.hende@gmail.com if you have any comments or questions.