Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Saturday, November 15, Daniel 7

From what I read, Daniel 7 can be divided into three sections. I've included all three in my rather long chapter title:

Chapter 7: "First HEAVEN-LY Vision:

The Four Beasts,
The Ancient of Days: King of HEAVEN, and
The Son of Man comes from HEAVEN"

Notice all the "HEAVEN"s in this. I do that because Heaven rhymes with Seven, and it helps me distinguish this chapter from the others.

When I dug into this, I was surprised at some of the interpretations. But the majority accept the obvious: these four beasts were the same as those from the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. If you recall: "The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay." (2:32-33)

Later he gave the interpretation that the first was the king, and the next three followed after him in succession. History proved that it was Babylon, then the Medo/Persians, then Greece, and then Rome. Let's see how this compares to this vision:

"The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings." (4a) br /> "And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear." (5a) br /> "After this I looked, and behold another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back." (6a) br /> "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong." (7a)

We are going to take them one at a time. About the first beast:

"Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it."

Now, if you read a little about the history of Babylon, you'll find that it was represented often as a Lion. The wings are typically shown as a representation of the speed by which Babylon conquered the ancient world. The plucking of the wings reveal that after Nebuchadnezzar, they quickly fell. I did think that it was interesting that the dream in chapter 2 only mentioned Nebuchadnezzar as the "head made of fine gold". And if you noticed, after he was gone, Babylon fell quickly to the Medo/Persian Empire.

If you read the prophecy in chapter two, another interesting thing crops up: "You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold." (37-38)

King of kings, over not only man, but the beasts and the birds! Then we move to chapter 4, where he is warned to not let pride destroy him, for he was given this authority by the Most High, who "rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will." (25d)

God had raised him up to fulfill His purposes, and His purposes are centered around Jerusalem. Israel broke the covenant over and over again, knowing that the end result would be that God would leave them to their desires. We see it vividly in Ezekiel 10 and 11, where Ezekiel sees the Shekinah Glory fill the Temple, and then leave, seemingly almost reluctantly, carried away by the great Cherubim, out of the temple, then out of the city. And the city was left alone.

The Shekinah Glory entered the Tabernacle in the last verses of Exodus (40:34), and again in the Temple before Solomon as the ark was brought in: "and when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord." (1 Kings 8:10-11) And there it remained until Ezekiel's prophecy, just before the destruction of the city.

Wow! I'm out of time here, and still so much to contemplate! I suggest that before tomorrow, maybe look at Genesis three, Matthew 4, and 1 John 2:15-17. They will be great insight on Nebuchadnezzar's next move, and the rest of the vision of this beast in Daniel 7. In the meantime,

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

*ESV used unless noted*

Memory Helps:

Again, here is chapter 7:

Chapter 7: "First HEAVEN-LY Vision:
The Four Beasts,
The Ancient of Days: King of HEAVEN, and
The Son of Man comes from HEAVEN"

For you who memorize, verse 3 is a good starter: "And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another."

My picture for 7 is, you guessed it: Heaven. My "memory character" for verses 3 is always my "Ma", because M=3 in our phonetic alphabet, vowels fillers. So, Daniel and Ma are standing on a cloud of heaven and behold these "four great beasts" that "came up out of the sea". You can see a great tsunami begin as they rise out, taken from verse 2: "the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea", as they came "up out of the sea" in 3 (rhyme intended).

I picture both Daniel and Ma kind of holding each other, trembling at the scary sight! This is an easy link for us to remember the contents and numbers for Daniel 7:3. Of course, you can add the obvious "different from one another" pretty easily since you will know the chapter well.