Post
by _Damon » Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:54 pm
Hi Todd!
I thought I would post something interesting regarding Daniel 7, as I'm pretty sure that most people don't quite grasp the symbolism of it.
We have the following symbolic elements in this chapter:
1. The "four winds" or "four spirits"
2. The "great sea"
3. The earth
4. Beasts
5. Horns
The only way to properly understand Daniel 7 is to look at it from the perspective of Creation. Believe it or not, every single one of the above elements goes straight back to Creation, including "horns." (Look at Psalm 148 which talks about Creation themes and also mentions the "horn" of God's people.)
1. The "four winds" or "four spirits" are the four archangels of God. (In Hebrew, "wind" and "spirit" come from the same word, ruach.) The Exodus account - which has many strong parallels to Creation - features an "east wind" which separates the waters of the Red Sea and causes dry land to appear. Compare Genesis 1:9-10. In Psalm 18:10 we see the Lord "riding upon a cherub" flying upon "the wings of the wind." This is Jesus flying on a winged archangel who appears in this instance as a pegasus horse.
2. The "great sea" is the primordial waters from which all of Creation arose. Compare Genesis 1:1-2 and 9-10. Rising up out of the sea is symbolic of the principle of "something created from nothing." In this case, it represents the greatest overcomer there is - but unfortunately that's only true from a military perspective and not from a character perspective. In other words, these were four warrior kings/kingdoms.
3. The earth symbolizes, not the whole planet, but specifically the Land of Promise. In the Creation account, this was the land of Eden (with the Garden of Eden towards the east of the land of Eden, where the presence of God, the King of the Universe, dwelt). Later, the Land of Promise became the land of Israel (with Jerusalem, whence the king ruled, as its capital). Technically speaking, the land of Israel extends from the Nile to the Euphrates (Gen. 15:18 ), so it actually encompassed the four kingdoms referred to in Daniel 7.
4. God first created the beasts of the earth before He created man. Symbolically, this is paralleled with all of the nations of the earth coming into existence before the nation of Israel. The beasts represent the Gentile nations of the earth. To be a beast, as opposed to a man, simply means to act on instinct and according to one's base desires instead of consciously acting in love. When God punished Nebuchadnezzar by taking away the spirit in man from him for seven years, Nebuchadnezzar then knew that God was the ultimate authority and not he. God "gave a man's heart" (Dan. 7:4) to Nebuchadnezzar by putting him in a trial for the purpose of learning how to act in love instead of coming from selfish desires and pride.
5. Horns are also referred to in the bible as "glory." The "glory" of a nation is its king.
To summarize this chapter without the obscure symbolism, we have four kingdoms which will arise within the boundaries of the land of Israel. In the spirit realm, this is reflected by the four archangels striving against four demonic powers who are influencing these four kings. (Compare Zech. 1:18-21; the four horns are the four kings, and also the four demonic powers influencing them. The four carpenters are the four archangels.) Each of these four kingdoms is led by a very strong warrior-king. The fourth beast which "broke in pieces" and "stamped the remnant with its feet" is referring to the worst kind of genocidal violence stemming from implacable hatred. In other words, the kind of hatred the terrorists have for their enemies today. The fourth kingdom within the boundaries of Israel would contain ten powerful kings. However, another king would arise who would blaspheme God and put the saints through such terrible conditions that they would grow weary and, were it not for supernatural endurance from God, give up the faith. This would last for three and a half "times" - specifically identifying this period as the Great Tribulation of Daniel 12:1 and of Revelation.
It's after all of this that the Kingdom - specifically of Israel - would be given to the saints in perpetuity. In other words, it's not primarily referring to a spiritual Kingdom, but to a physical one, simply because the other four kingdoms were all physical kingdoms.
In this respect, Daniel 7:13 could very easily be referring to Jesus' ascension. However, Daniel 7:14, while it has spiritually come to pass, has not yet physically come to pass, and that's the primary aspect of this chapter.
Anyway, those are my thoughts...
Damon
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