Good Morning!
I considered the horns, and, behold, there came
up among them another little horn, before
whom there were three of the first horns
plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this
horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a
mouth speaking great things (Daniel 7:8).
This fourth beast in Daniel's dream corresponds to the legs and feet of the huge image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Chapter 2. God showed the image to a pagan king who would best understand God's message in this form. The image is a simplified poster of God's view of history through the end of the Gentile kingdoms.
The stone that strikes the feet of the image and thus destroys the whole thing is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ who returns to earth to sit upon the throne of His earthly father, David in Jerusalem. From there He will rule the world with a rod of iron (Psalm 2) for a thousand years. It will be a dictatorship with no congress, no legislature, no elections, and no public debates about what is to be done.
There were kingdoms prior to Babylon, such as the Sumerians, Egyptians, Assyrians, etc. But none of them covered the large territories of Babylon, the Medo-Persians, the Greco-Macedonians and the Roman Empire. In the plan of God, there were to be four Gentile world kingdoms, beginning with Babylon and ending with the last stages of the Roman Empire. There is no fifth Gentile kingdom. The kingdom of God and His Christ will be the fifth world kingdom.
Daniel's dream of the four beasts reveals the beastly nature of the human rulers that Nebuchadnezzar saw in the image of his dream. We have recently re-visited Daniel Chapter 2, with emphasis on the iron legs and feet of iron and clay and the stone that smashes the feet and destroys the whole beast, beating it into powder and it is then taken away with the wind. And now we return to Daniel's dream in Chapter 7 with emphasis on the fourth beast and the ten horns coming out of his head. Out of the ten horns comes another smaller horn which displaces three of the ten horns. Rome has always been alive but dormant.
In this little horn are eyes with unusual ability. Penetrating, all-seeing eyes that miss nothing. He is of great intellect with great powers of observation. Adolf Hitler was like that. He apparently was a genius and had a great mental power to take in great quantities in information, more-so than any of his generals. Not only so, but this man in our text was arrogant against God. As we shall see, he was empowered by Satan.
The theme of the little horn and his eyes and mouth recur in the book of Revelation where we learn much more about him. God revealed some things in Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the image. We learn more from Daniel's dream of the four beasts. We will know more from the other chapters of Daniel. We will know much more from the Book of Revelation. It is impossible to know much of anything about the Book of Revelation without the Book of Daniel.
I believe we are seeing the rapid resurgence of the Roman Empire; not in the iron legs of its zenith of power, but in its feet. At some point, the ten toes will appear which correspond to the ten horns of this fourth beast of our text today. There are now 27 nations in the European Union. I'm assuming that the European Union is at least a forerunner of the ten horns, i.e. the feet and clay and the ten toes of the image. If that is true, then the 27 nations will at some time be reduced to ten nations or perhaps ten regions of nations.
I urge you to diligently read the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. Particularly the 2nd, 7th, and 9th chapters of Daniel and the 13th and 17th chapters of Revelation. A good study Bible will help: Scofield Study Bible; Morris Study Bible; King James Study Bible; John MacArthur Study Bible, and there are several others. We have read a dozen or so versions of the Bible all the way through and always came back to the King James Bible for our reading, memorizing, and the text for studying. We use www.e-Sword.net (free) for our main e-Bible study.
Memory Verses for this week:
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. (31) And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. (32) He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: (33) And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:30-33).
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