Dan 7:1

Dan 7: Daniel’s vision of the future: (1) The four beasts (vv 1-8); (2) The Ancient of Days and the destruction of the fourth beast (vv 9-12); (3) The Son of Man’s kingdom (vv 13,14); (4) The interpretation of the four beasts (vv 15-18); (5) Daniel’s request for interpretation of the fourth beast (vv 19-22); (6) The interpretation of the fourth beast (vv 23-25); (7) The end of the fourth beast and the beginning of the everlasting kingdom (vv 26-28).

This ch is a graphic demonstration of Eccl 3:18,19: “As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal…”

King Nebuchadnezzar saw the earlier vision, of the KIngdoms of Man as a great Image, destined to be broken and crushed to pieces by the power of God in Christ (Dan 2). Then he was taught that he, although the head of the great Image, was himself no more nor better than a beast (Dan 4). And now, in ch 7, Daniel is given more detail about the four separate entities that constituted the Image: (a) In Dan 2, the four earthly kingdoms and Christ’s heavenly kingdom were seen in their outward political appearance; by contrast, Dan 7 presents God’s estimate of their innermost moral and spiritual features. (b) In Dan 2, the symbols were taken from inanimate objects; here in Dan 7, they are taken from the animate. (c) In Dan 2, King Nebuchadnezzar saw the splendor of these kingdoms portrayed in the dazzling statue of a man, while the Kingdom of God was symbolized by a stone. By contrast, in Dan 7, Daniel’s vision reveals the animalistic character of these kingdoms of men and the fact that it is only in the Kingdom of God that man’s full dignity is realized — in the Son of Man.

In turn, Dan 7 becomes the framework for an even more detailed prophetic picture of these kingdoms, to be developed in the Book of Revelation.

Comparison between Daniel 2 and Daniel 7: