Apr. 11, 2024

Daniel 7:1-28 Bible Study Worksheet

The concepts that dominate these sections are “seeing” or “looking” and just like in chapter 2 where we saw history through mans eyes, in chapter 7 we will see history as God sees it. These perspectives are drastically different.

God is Sovereign over the Nations (7:1-8)

• The Bible uses various means of literary styles to teach us God’s truth. 
• This is a biblical apocalyptic and it is a prophecy style of literature that seeks to enlighten and encourage a people despised and cast out by the world with a vision of the God who will come to impose his kingdom on the wreckage and rebellion of human history.

He reveals what he chooses to show us (7:1).

• Daniel communicates a historical marker of when this chapter was specifically written: “In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon.” 
• At the time of Belshazzar’s reign 553 BC, Daniel would have been in his mid sixties. 

God revealed, and Daniel wrote. 

That is how God delivers his divine, infallible, and inerrant revelation.

He raises up whom he chooses for power (7:2-8).

“Rise of the beasts.”

The four winds of the compass (North, South, East, and West) are referred to as the “winds of heaven,” teaches us this is God’s doing.

“The great sea” symbolically is understood as raging chaos, confusion, and conflict among the nations of the world.

Isaiah 17:12; Job 41:31; Rev. 17:15

Verse 3-8 Daniel saw: “Four huge beasts came up from the sea”

• An animal serves as a symbol for a nation that continues even in our day. 
• First Beast: “was like a lion but had eagles wings” (v.4)
  • Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon
  • Jeremiah and Ezekiel compare Neb and Babylon to a lion and an Eagle (Jer. 4:7; 49:19; 50:44; Ezek. 17:3, 11-12). 
  • “Its wings were torn off” (Dan. 7:4)
  • More than likely a reference to Nebuchadnezzar’s humbling insanity (4:28-33)
  • Daniel’s “Jungle Book” 
• Second Beast: “a bear ”
  • Raised up with three ribs in its mouth.
  • God tells it to get up and gorge yourself on flesh. This beast is Medo-Persia. 
  • Three ribs, indicate those that fell to Cyrus:
  • Lydian Kingdom in Asia Minor (546 BC)
  • Chaldean Empire (539 BC)
  • Kingdom of Egypt (525 BC)
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• Third Beast: “like a leopard with four wings of a bird and four heads.”
  • It was a powerful beast as it was given dominion. 
  • This is clearly Greece and Alexander the Great
• The accuracy of biblical prophecy is absolutely amazing.

In scripture, “heads” may represent rulers or governments (Dan. 2:38; Isa 7:8-9; Rev. 13:3,12)

Leopard had four heads, and we see that this empire eventually evolved into four separate kingdoms occurring after Alexander's death in 323 B.C. 

1. Antipater - Gained control of Greece and Macedonia
2. Lysimachus  - ruled Thrace and a large portion of Asia Minor
3. Seleucus I Nictator - governed Syria, Babylon, and a lot of the Middle East (everything except Palestine and Asia Minor).
4. Ptolemy I Soter - controlled Egypt and Palestine

Fourth Beast: the most frightening and dreadful of all. It is incredibly strong, with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled with its feet wherever was left.”

• It has ten horns, communicating great and complete power (2:40-42)
• This beast is without question the Roman Empire
• There is an eleventh horn, begins small and grows in intelligence with the eyes of man and a big mouth (Revelation 13) comes to mind. 
• First biblical reference that depicts or describes the Anti-Christ. He appears in 2 Thessalonians 2 as the “man of lawlessness… doomed for destruction.

God is Sovereign over His Kingdom(7:9-14).

This is the most comforting and glorious section as we witness the sovereignty of God over the nations. “The single most important chapter of the book,” according to Stephen Miller.

He is sovereign because of his eternality and purity (7:9-10).

• Only Daniel calls God the Ancient of Days.
• This is God the Father in His eternal and universal throne.  
• The Ancient of Days is eternal, not old. He is wise, not senile. He is a big God, bigger than even Daniel realized, and bigger than the petty beast kingdoms of this world. 
• His clothing “white like snow - speaks to His holiness, purity and righteousness.
• His hair “like whitest wool” - eternality, purity, wisdom, (wise beyond all comparison). He has always existed.
• His throne was flaming fire - Purifying and righteous judgment.
• Its wheels were blazing fire - no spatial limitations to His judgment.
• A river of fire coming out from His presence - conveys righteous fury and wrath in judgment.

Psalm 97:3 

He is sovereign with his sentence and patience (7:11-12).

“Little horn ” is still mouthing off as the vision reverts back to him.

Arrogant brat has his boasting framed two poems (9-10, 13-14)

 (Rev. 19:19-21; 20:10)

This fourth beast had it’s dominion… removed but there was an extension of life that was granted to them for a certain period of time. 

They still existed, and lived as part of the kingdom that conquered them. 

When God judges the little horn, the last remnant of the Roman Empire will be annihilated.

He is sovereign in his man and plan (7:13-14)

“One like the son of man”  -  “Ancient of Days”

(Ex. 16:10; 19:9; 24:16; 34:5; Num. 11:25; Psa. 97:2; 104:3; Isa. 19:1; Nah. 1:3)

“Who is this Son of Man” who comes in a divine manifestation. 

Jesus tells us Himself who the son of Man is, as it was His favorite self-designated title, (Acts 7:56, Rev. 1:13)

God is Sovereign in His Judgement (7:15-28).

• Even a vision of the greatness and glory of God is still not enough to overcome our anxieties, concerns, and troubled hearts. 
• Thankfully we are not alone in this type of moment of distress and affliction and overwhelm us.

God’s people will receive an eternal kingdom that will last forever (7:15-18).

• Everything Daniel had seen was deeply distressed him. 
• “He approached one of those who were standing by”
• The angel obliged and provided an interpretation 
• The four beasts are four kings'/kingdoms “who will rise from the earth” 
• They stand in contrast to the Son of Man who comes down from Heaven.
• Their temporal kingdom stands in opposition or contrast to the kingdom of the saints of God.

God’s people will suffer in an earthly kingdom that will last only a short time (7:19-26).

God’s people will be given a universal kingdom that will last forever (7:27-28).

Daniel is told a second time that saints will be given a universal and eternal kingdom. For the eternal God, “The Most High,” will see to it. 

None of the Piddly tyrants of the past will last, they will all come and go.

Madmen like Nero, will be here today and gone tomorrow.

Lunatics like Hitler will have their reign of terror only for a season.

Even the Antichrist will have his day (Three and half years)

All of which is a startling contrast when compared to God’s kingdom, “everlasting kingdom, and every ruler and leader will serve and obey Him. This is good news, and the end of all that matters.