The prophecy truly does sound mysterious but when you're given the puzzle pieces and they fit into the puzzle, you'd be foolish to toss the pieces away and exclaim the puzzle cannot be solved. So many have done just this. They've read these words and have expected to understand as if they weren't prophetic at all. I was one of these people. I'd read these words and images of real beasts would pop up in my imagination. I picture that lion with wings, that bear with ribs in its mouth, the leopard …. I PICTURED them just as most people do. The reality that right there just a few verses down we are told they represent kings/kingdoms should knock the vision of the beasts from our minds and replace them with those kingdoms. Only we have to look at history's big picture and take Babylon which is given to us, take Medo-Perisa, take Greece… and then we need to fill in the blanks with the history that followed. We need to take the pieces of the puzzle and change the strange figurative pictures into reality. We can't keep them in those beast images and shrug our shoulders, waiting for beasts to appear fitting the strange descriptions. We have to let the LORD guide us. We have to be willing to take the puzzle pieces given to us and examine them fitting them into the puzzle board. If we ignore those pieces because we didn't make them ourselves, then we deprive ourselves of the truth God has revealed to others using their talents. We must fit the pieces so that in our minds we are truly comprehended the TRUTH. We must take the puzzle apart that others have put together and do it over again so it's our understanding the Holy Spirit is enlightening. If we refuse, we are rejecting light, rejecting truth, and for what? Our own cherished beliefs and traditions? Our own beloved deceptions we've been led to believe are truths? God help us! God please help us! We need God so desperately and nothing but God! Please LORD see if there is any wicked ways in us and lead us in YOUR WAY EVERLASTING! Rip the blinders from our eyes! Let us only see TRUTH no matter how much it destroys something we think we love. If that something isn't YOU, then destroy it so we only have YOU.
Dan 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.
((Daniel Dreams))
Dan 7:2 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
((Four Winds = strife, political commotion, and war
Great Sea = peoples, and nations, and tongues))
Dan 7:3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. ((Four kings/kingdoms))
Dan 7:4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. ((Babylon))
Dan 7:5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. ((Medo-Persia))
Dan 7:6 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; and dominion was given to it. ((Greece))
Dan 7:7 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 brake 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. ((Rome))
Dan 7:8 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. ((Rome divided -pagan/papal))
Dan 7:9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. ((God))
Dan 7:10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. ((Judgment))
Dan 7:11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. ((Little Horn-Beast powers will continue to the end of evil))
Dan 7:12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. ((Babylon/Medo-Persia/Greece visages of all continued to the last Kingdom))
Dan 7:13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
Dan 7:14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (( Jesus' everlasting kingdom ))
Dan 7:15 I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.
Dan 7:16 I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.
Dan 7:17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.
Dan 7:18 But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
Dan 7:19 Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;
Dan 7:20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.
Dan 7:21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
Dan 7:22 Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
Dan 7:23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
Dan 7:24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
Dan 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
Dan 7:26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
Dan 7:27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
Dan 7:28 Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.
God's people will prevail. Daniel saw history as it has unfolded and his prophecies have come true one by one and nothing will keep the fulfillment of all his prophecies given him by God, from occurring just as predicted.
We have to trust in the Lord, trust in His word. His saints are persecuted throughout history, but there is a kingdom to come, a kingdom we look forward to.
Matthew 25:34 'Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'
Matthew 6:19-21 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: {6:20} But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: {6:21} For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'
Matthew 6:10 'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven.'