The Four Beasts. Daniel 7
THE chapter to which we now desire to turn the reader’s attention is one of the most interesting and important of the prophetic writings.
Except for the fact that Dean Farrar looks upon the whole Book of Daniel as a magnificent fraud, it would be hard to understand why he should pronounce the second portion to be “unquestionably inferior to the first part (chs. 1-6) in grandeur and importance as a whole.”
The Dean admits that “the vision is dated, ‘In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon,’” but this, he hastens to tell us, is “merely a touch of literary verisimilitude.” It is sad to think that men who fill the highest positions in the Established Church to-day are such utter unbelievers in the inspiration of the Scriptures.
It is a sign of the times more serious than words can express that the infidelity of rationalism and the superstitions of ritualism are sweeping the multitude along towards the predicted apostasy of Christendom.
So far from lacking in importance, this vision of the prophet carries us right through the whole period of the times of the Gentiles. It extends over a vast stretch of time, commencing with the rise of the Babylonian empire, about B.C. 600, and continuing until the coming of the Son of Man, when there shall be given to Him “dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him” (vers. 13:14).
The chapter divides itself into four paragraphs, at verses 2, 7, 13, and 17. The first three are introduced by the words, “I saw in the night visions;” the last is “the interpretation of the things.”
In the first of these paragraphs the general fact is stated that there were four beasts, and then a brief description is given of the first three; but brief as it is, details are given which were so remarkably fulfilled that nothing but inspiration could account for the miracle. Indeed, the very brevity of the description, coupled with the accuracy of accomplishment, leaves no room to doubt that Daniel “spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost.”
God was pleased in vision to present to Daniel’s thought the great sea lashed into fury and thrown into storm and unrest by the four winds of heaven. In this symbolic language we are given a picture of the nations of the earth in a state of chaos and confusion. Scripture not unfrequently uses this figure to describe this state of things. “Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!” (Isa. 17:12; compare also Isa. 57:20; Rev. 17:15).
Out of this restless condition of the nations, produced in the providence of God for the accomplishment of His designs upon the earth, four great beasts are seen to rise. “The four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea,” and in truth stormy winds of whatever kind do but fulfill His will.
From this troubled mass, then, Daniel sees in vision the uprising of the Gentile empires. In this we are given their providential origin, whereas in verse 17. we are told what is their moral origin: they come from the earth and not from heaven.
There can be no reasonable doubt that these four beasts represent the four Gentile powers already portrayed in the great image of chapter 2 There, the course of empire is presented to the mind of Nebuchadnezzar as one whole, whereas here, Daniel perceives it in its successional form. There it stands before the monarch’s gaze, in all its imposing grandeur as instituted by God, here it is seen utterly destitute of any moral link with God.
“Four great beasts”―wild beasts― “came up from the sea.” A beast spends its existence entirely regardless of God; this we have already seen has especially marked the whole course of Gentile rule since it was set up under Nebuchadnezzar. At the close’ it will assume an attitude of open rebellion and blasphemous hostility to God and His people. It may be well to observe in passing that the beasts of Daniel 7. must not be confounded with the four beasts in Revelation. The words are different—in Daniel, they are wild beasts; in Revelation, living creatures.
“The first was like a lion.” Here we have the Babylonian empire. Nor is this the only place where Babylon is thus described. The prophet Jeremiah speaks of Nebuchadnezzar in these words, “Behold, he shall come up like a lion,” &c., adding the other symbol that Daniel saw in vision, “Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle” (Jer. 49:19, 22). But the strength of the lion and the swiftness of the eagle did not prevent the humiliation of the proud Babylonian empire: “I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked,” &c.
“And behold, another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side” (vs. 5). We need not appeal to history to prove that this could mean none other than the Medo-Persian empire, for the Book of Daniel itself leaves no room for doubt on this point. The dream was given to Daniel while Babylon still flourished under Belshazzar, but we have already been told in the historical portion of the book (vers. 30:30 that on the night when Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was slain, “Darius the Median took the kingdom.”
The devout student of Scripture need not have his faith in the inspiration of those Scriptures disturbed in the smallest degree by the wild assertions of the higher critics. Dean Farrar cannot believe that “Darius the Median” ever existed because no such person is mentioned in history. But the same doubt was thrown by the rationalists upon Sargon the king of Assyria (Isa. 20:1) until quite recently, when his name was discovered upon one of the monuments. The more closely the Scriptures are examined, the more absolutely reliable they are found to be; the more they are exposed to the crucible of sound criticism, the more completely are they proved worthy of our implicit confidence and faith.
But the second empire, represented by the bear, is of a composite nature. It is not the Median alone, but the Medo-Persian. It is difficult to understand why Dean Farrar should refer us to Dan. 5:28, 31, 6:8,12,15, 8:20, in support of his contention that “those who explain the monster as an emblem, not of the Median but of the Medo Persian empire, neglect the plain indications of the book itself, for the author regards the Median and Persian empires as distinct.” One would naturally suppose that these references proved the very reverse; but then the theory of the rationalists requires that the fourth beast should be the Grecian empire and not the Roman, and for this it is necessary to split into two what the Word of God has most evidently given as one (8:20). Nevertheless though the empire was composed of two peoples joined in one, yet one of these was more prominent than the other. This the prophet sees in vision: “It raised up itself on one side.” The same fact is told us in figurative language in the following chapter (vs. 3), for the ram of chapter 8. is the same as the bear of chapter 7, but there another trait is added, “The higher came up last.” How admirably accurate are all these details every one in the smallest degree familiar with history knows right well, for the Medes were heard of earlier than the Persians, though the Persian element eventually gained the ascendant.
“After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads” (vs. 6). The Grecian empire under Alexander the Great is here indicated, noted for its swiftness in conquest― “four wings of a fowl.” There is also added a feature, well known to history, which is more fully dwelt on later on in the book (ch. 8. and 11), that is, the division of Alexander’s kingdom, after his death, into four parts― “the beast had also four heads.” When we remember that the vision was given to Daniel in the reign of Belshazzar king of Babylon, that is, before the Medo-Persian and Grecian empires were in existence, and that in a few brief sentences details are given which were accurately fulfilled in the after-history of those empires, it is impossible not to bow the head in worship before Him who for His own glory and the glory of His beloved Son was pleased to make known these things to His servant Daniel, and to inspire him by His Spirit to record them for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scripture might have hope (Rom. 15:4).
(To be continued.)