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Book Study Wk 18 10/24: pg 129-134: Who Will Rule The World
Chapter Nine Who Will Rule the World?
DANIEL’S gripping prophecy now takes us back to the first year of Babylonian King Belshazzar. Daniel has long been an exile in Babylon, but never has he wavered in his integrity to Jehovah. Now in his 70’s, the faithful prophet beholds “a dream and visions of his head upon his bed.” And how those visions frighten him!—Daniel 7:1, 15.
2 “See there!” exclaims Daniel. “The four winds of the heavens were stirring up the vast sea. And four huge beasts were coming up out of the sea, each one being different from the others.” What remarkable beasts! The first is a winged lion, and the second is like a bear. Then comes a leopard with four wings and four heads! The unusually strong fourth beast has large iron teeth and ten horns. In among its ten horns rises a “small” horn having “eyes like the eyes of a man” and “a mouth speaking grandiose things.”—Daniel 7:2-8.
3 Daniel’s visions next turn heavenward. The Ancient of Days sits gloriously enthroned as Judge in the heavenly Court. ‘There are a thousand thousands that keep ministering to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand that keep standing right before him.’ Judging the beasts adversely, he takes rulership away from them and destroys the fourth beast. Lasting rulership over “the peoples, national groups and languages” is vested in “someone like a son of man.”—Daniel 7:9-14.
4 “As for me,” says Daniel, “my spirit was distressed within on account of it, and the very visions of my head began to frighten me.” So he seeks from an angel “reliable information on all this.” The angel indeed provides him “the very interpretation of the matters.” (Daniel 7:15-28) What Daniel saw and heard that night is of great interest to us, for it outlined future world events reaching into our times, when “someone like a son of man” is given rulership over all “peoples, national groups and languages.” With the help of God’s Word and spirit, we too can understand the meaning of these prophetic visions.
FOUR BEASTS COME OUT OF THE SEA
5 “Four huge beasts were coming up out of the sea,” said Daniel. (Daniel 7:3) What was symbolized by the windswept sea? Years later, the apostle John saw a seven-headed wild beast come out of the “sea.” That sea represented “peoples and crowds and nations and tongues”—the vast body of mankind estranged from God. The sea, then, is a fitting symbol of the masses of mankind alienated from God.—Revelation 13:1, 2; 17:15; Isaiah 57:20.
6 “As for these huge beasts,” said God’s angel, “because they are four, there are four kings that will stand up from the earth.” (Daniel 7:17) Clearly, the angel identified the four beasts that Daniel saw as “four kings.” Thus, these beasts signify world powers. But which ones?
7 Bible expositors commonly link Daniel’s dream-vision of four beasts with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of an immense image. For example, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary states: “Chapter 7 [of Daniel] parallels chapter 2.” The Wycliffe Bible Commentary says: “It is generally agreed that the succession of four Gentile dominions . . . is the same here [in Daniel chapter 7] as that contemplated in [Daniel] chapter 2.” The four world powers represented by the four metals of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream were the Babylonian Empire (gold head), Medo-Persia (silver breasts and arms), Greece (copper belly and thighs), and the Roman Empire (iron legs). (Daniel 2:32, 33) Let us see how these kingdoms correspond to the four huge beasts that Daniel saw.
FEROCIOUS AS A LION, QUICK AS AN EAGLE
8 What beasts Daniel beheld! Describing one, he said: “The first one was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I kept on beholding until its wings were plucked out, and it was lifted up from the earth and was made to stand up on two feet just like a man, and there was given to it the heart of a man.” (Daniel 7:4) This beast pictured the same rulership as that represented by the head of gold of the immense image, the Babylonian World Power (607-539 B.C.E.). Like a predatory “lion,” Babylon fiercely devoured nations, including God’s people. (Jeremiah 4:5-7; 50:17) As if with the wings of an eagle, this “lion” sped forward in aggressive conquest.—Lamentations 4:19; Habakkuk 1:6-8.
9 In time, the unique winged lion had its wings “plucked out.” Near the end of King Belshazzar’s rule, Babylon lost its speed of conquest and its lionlike supremacy over the nations. It was no faster than a man on two feet. Getting “the heart of a man,” it became weak. Lacking “the heart of the lion,” Babylon could no longer behave like king “among the beasts of a forest.” (Compare 2 Samuel 17:10; Micah 5:8.) Another huge beast vanquished it.
VORACIOUS AS A BEAR
10 “See there!” said Daniel, “another beast, a second one, it being like a bear. And on one side it was raised up, and there were three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and this is what they were saying to it, ‘Get up, eat much flesh.’” (Daniel 7:5) The king symbolized by the “bear” was the very same as that represented by the silver breasts and arms of the great image—the line of Medo-Persian rulers (539-331 B.C.E.) starting with Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Great and ending with Darius III.
11 The symbolic bear was ‘raised up on one side,’ perhaps to get ready to attack and subdue nations and thus maintain world power. Or this position may have been intended to show that the Persian line of rulers would gain the ascendancy over the sole Median king, Darius. The three ribs between the bear’s teeth could denote the three directions in which it pushed its conquests. The Medo-Persian “bear” went to the north to seize Babylon in 539 B.C.E. Then it went westward through Asia Minor and into Thrace. Finally, the “bear” went to the south to conquer Egypt. Since the number three at times symbolizes intensity, the three ribs may also emphasize the symbolic bear’s greed for conquest.
12 The “bear” assaulted nations in response to the words: “Get up, eat much flesh.” By devouring Babylon according to the divine will, Medo-Persia was in a position to perform a valuable service toward Jehovah’s people. And it did! (See “A Tolerant Monarch,” on page 149.) Through Cyrus the Great, Darius I (Darius the Great), and Artaxerxes I, Medo-Persia freed Babylon’s Jewish captives and helped them rebuild Jehovah’s temple and repair Jerusalem’s walls. In time, Medo-Persia came to rule over 127 jurisdictional districts, and Queen Esther’s husband, Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), was “king from India to Ethiopia.” (Esther 1:1) However, the rise of another beast was in the offing.
[Footnotes]
For clarity and to avoid repetition, we will consolidate explanatory verses found at Daniel 7:15-28 with a verse-by-verse consideration of the visions recorded at Daniel 7:1-14.
WHAT DID YOU DISCERN?
· What is symbolized by each of the ‘four huge beasts coming up out of the sea’?
· What constitutes the “small” horn?
[Study Questions]
1-3. Describe the dream and visions that Daniel had in the first year of Belshazzar’s reign.
4. (a) To whom did Daniel turn for reliable information? (b) Why is what Daniel saw and heard that night important to us?
5. What does the windswept sea symbolize?
6. What do the four beasts picture?
7. (a) What do certain Bible expositors say about Daniel’s dream-vision of the four beasts and King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of an immense image? (b) What do each of the four metallic parts of the image represent?
8. (a) How did Daniel describe the first beast? (b) What empire did the first beast represent, and how did it act like a lion?
9. What changes did the lionlike beast undergo, and how did these affect it?
10. What line of rulers did the “bear” symbolize?
11. What did the symbolic bear’s being raised up on one side and its having three ribs in its mouth signify?
12. What resulted from the symbolic bear’s obeying the command: “Get up, eat much flesh”?