Good Morning! - Daniel 7:7 - The Fourth Beast Dreadful and Terrible - 2009.11.24

After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns (Daniel 7:7).

This fourth beast with ten horns that is strong exceedingly with great iron teeth is the Roman Empire. It still exists today in its divided, latent form. "The Roman Empire simply fell apart; it lives on in many nations of Europe, in those nations which border the Mediterranean and in North Africa—all those which were a part of the Roman Empire. No one overcame Rome, but it fell apart into these different nations" (McGee). Rome simply went into a severe moral rot and fell in upon itself. The iron teeth of this beast corresponds to the iron legs of the great image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

The detail of this fourth beast is found in Daniel 7:19-28. A lot of speculation has been trumpeted in books and lectures that amounts to fiction. We want to avoid that. God has already given us the picture of the future by the Spirit of God in the book of Daniel.

More is said about the fourth beast than all the others put together. We are living in the time of the fourth beast when the ten horns on the beast and the ten toes of Daniel's big image are becoming apparent. We cannot go to a zoo anywhere in the world and find a beast that looks anything like this strange conglomerate.

This beast is not like a lion or a bear or a leopard or like anything in your encyclopedia. It is "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly." That was like the Roman Empire. The iron teeth of this animal correspond to the iron legs of Daniel's huge image. For a thousand years it stomped on the other nations of the world. Gibbon wrote of it: "The empire of the Romans filled the world, and when the empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. To resist was fatal and it was impossible to fly."

"Another writer, Dr. Robert D. Culver, who has a very fine book on Daniel entitled Daniel: Decoder of Dreams, has made this statement: 'Two millennia ago, Rome gave the world the ecumenical unity which the League of Nations and the United Nations organizations have sought to give in our time. The modern attempts are not original at all (as many of our contemporaries suppose), but are revivals of the ancient Roman ideal which never since the time of Augustus Caesar has been wholly lost'" (Quoted by McGee).

This beast is relevant and important to us because it is soon going to present itself to the world in its final form. The United States will not forever remain the dominant power of the world. We are part of the fickle masses of the clay in the ten toes of Daniel's image. Democracy has a hard time making hard decisions and denying itself. Greed and buying on credit are like the spectacle of a drunken man. A nation can become the puppet to other nations by its financial policies as surely as being captured by an army. The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7).

The visions of the three beasts have been fulfilled therefore we can expect the fourth to be fulfilled. "The fourth kingdom of Rome has already appeared. Although it fell apart, it will come back together in ten kingdoms. It will be put together by the one whom the Word of God has labeled the Antichrist" (McGee).

Before the final days of this ten-horn beast, God's people, the church will be called out of the world in the blink of an eye. If you are the Lord's you are going up. Some of my fun-loving friends joke that they believe the day of Christ's calling out of the church is so close that they eat their desert first at every meal.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (17) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (18) Wherefore comfort one another with these words (1Thessalonians 4:16-18).

Maybe today!

Memory Verse for this week: (This is the second week with this important verse.)

(Hebrews 3:12,13) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:12,13).

Digging Deeper

Lest any of you…. Christians do shipwreck at a surprising rate. It's a heart problem. Rarely is the problem in the head. We drift away from our warmest affection and allegiance for God and begin to focus on self. It's not always the preacher who can be the most help when a Christian is hardening his or her heart. Preachers shipwreck too. Remember Jonah running away from God? And Peter was cold and just wanted to warm a little by the enemy's fire, but it cost him dearly. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (1Corinthians 10:12).

Rarely will a Christian get up in the morning and say: "I think I'll go to town and sin today and just fall flat on my face." James says this is how it happens: Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (James 1:13-15).

Run from lust and temptation!