Four Creatures

Daniel 7:1-8

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 spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.

Here we see King Belshazzar mentioned again. Oddly enough, the book of Daniel seems to be out of order. Chapter six deals with the lion's den incident under Darius the Mede. Chapter seven should have been with chapter five on the fall of King Belshazzar. Could it be that God had to allow this thing to happen to usher in a greater knowledge of himself. Notice here how Daniel is having visions just as King Nebuchadnezzar did. Serving God translated into service to the king and vice versa. This is one reason why God felt at liberty to speak into Daniel's dreams. Daniel had been serving the Lord by carrying out his required duties to this point. Therefore, the Lord could give him greater revelation than before given his faithfulness in the matters of little. In his dream, Daniel saw the four winds of Heaven that strove upon the great sea. The vision here is almost that of when a helicopter descends right above the water. The wind from the four blades whips into the water. However, in this case, the cause of the wind is unseen. If you will remember from Matthew 5:35, the earth is God's footstool.

King Belshazzar was a wicked king who did evil in the sight of the Lord, as we know from prior texts. In Ephesians 2:2, Satan is referred to as the prince of the power of the air. Therefore, we know that the air occupied by the four winds may well be enemy territory. It is not for nothing that I reminded you of God's ownership and sovereignty overall. It may be a territory of evil, but God is the overseer. This ought to be very comforting to the saints indeed. The four winds may also have an explanation. Michael and his angels strove in Heaven according to Revelation 12:7-9 with the devil and his angels before the rebellion fell. From what little we know of the affairs of Heaven that there were four archangels created which idea is sustained by Zechariah 6:1-8. It is quite conceivable that here all four converged to strive upon this one area. There is also an explanation given concerning the sea. That is of in Revelation 4:6 a sea as clear as glass before him who sits upon the throne. Before time began, Genesis 1:2 sees the earth referred to as water upon the face of the deep. I am no expert and of course do not know everything; given what little the Scriptures have said, I am confident this is so. The four archangels created to serve God were sent to the four corners of Heaven and of the earth. Here, they emerge as the winds of Heaven over the place appointed for his place of rest. At the moment such a place is not very peaceful. We will see why this is important to keep in mind later.

And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. 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.

As I continue to interpret given the limited clues contained in the Scripture, I must be careful with doing so. Revelation 22:18 contains a warning label for the plagues of the book to be added those who do not rightly interpret the Word. I would very much not like to have the plagues of Revelation added to my account. I would also not enjoy being removed from the Lamb's book of Life. Therefore, we must tread carefully. There is a great temptation among many Christian circles, containing mainly theologians and preachers, to apply these words to various empires of the ancient world. I find such is not supported by the evidence from the Scripture nor any from history. If I am in error, may the Lord rebuke me. But if you are in error, rest assured, he will also rebuke you. Now, given that the book of Daniel seems disordered, I would like to know if these events concerning the beasts are also mixed. They may well be given sequentially. In my opinion, knowing this would give more clues as to these entities' identities. However, God does not see fit for us to know the answer to them at this time. I find the focus is rather upon himself.

From the effect of the winds, the four beasts came up out of the sea. I can see them now buffeted by wind first one way and then another, but they never stray from their original purpose. God does not say here whether these four beasts came up as one together or separately one after the other. He did want us to see that these beasts were diverse from each other. This is done so there was no way someone with limited eyesight could see them and think that they were by chance all the same creatures. Some of the mythologies have shown all these beasts as some multi-headed hydra monster. Other theologians have the cute little drawings of each beast coming up one after the other in a long parade. Let us not get carried away with what the Scripture does not say. It was Daniel's dream; if you need to see it too, ask him for yourself.

The lion with the eagle wings shows a creature that soars above and sees much but is also very powerful to slay and subdue the enemy. The wings were plucked indicating there was transition to that of a man. Perhaps, this was a promotion or even a demotion here. The Scripture does not say. We have seen such before; however, this beast could almost resemble the story of Christ himself. Maybe this is the story of someone that we could easily get confused with because they sound similar. In the dream of the kingdoms, Nebuchadnezzar was the first head of gold. As we learned then, the focus was upon the people making up the kingdom rather than upon their leaders. Here, the focus is placed upon the rulers. Jesus is called "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah" in Revelation 5:5. At the ascension we see Jesus being lifted back into Heaven at Mark 16:19. Because God was part of the angelus order, being a supreme and all-powerful one himself, it is not hard to imagine he once had wings like them too. The Old Testament is full of references to the angel of the Lord. Rarely do those texts differentiate between the Lord and his angel. At the incarnation, both his wings were plucked; he was given a heart as a man and made to stand upon his feet both then and at the resurrection. See, this was done because man has been made "a little lower than the angels" and crowned "with glory and honor" as in Psalm 8:5. Philippians 2:8 states that Christ was found in fashion as a man but thought it not robbery to be equal with God. As I have said before, he fits many of the criteria for this beast. In addition, the four faces of the living creatures told of by Revelation 4:6-8 are that of a lion, ox, man, and an eagle. Ezekiel 1:10 originally describes these faces as that of a cherub, man, lion, and an eagle. Between the two passages, the angelic face has been lost and changed to that of an ox.

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. 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.

Acts 10:9-16 tells of clean and unclean beasts let down in a sheet to Peter. Then the command was given for him to arise, "kill, and eat." Here in Daniel, we see an almost similar command repeated. There is a differentiation between what is clean and what is unclean. Three ribs held in the teeth of the mouth are not very hygienic after a while. Either this creature has just eaten or else it has stored these ribs this way for a long time. How many of you know that when God wills something he can keep it from decaying. In this beast we see what was, what is, and what is yet to come. Power was given to the beast with some changed habits. This beast came from a full meal prior and was given much flesh to devour in the future. The bear had been faithful to its ruling tasks and as such is rewarded. With this command, we see judgment given to it as a reward for such service. We know that God has committed all judgment unto the Son in John 5:27, but there are other people he has permitted but for a short time.

The third beast had four wings like a fowl upon its' back. This beast type is that of a leopard. The leopard is a similar creature to the lion in that it is a cat. Yet the question is asked of Jeremiah 13:23 whether a leopard can change its' spots. The four wings of the foul on the back indicate it is borne by them. A fowl could be as a dove of Matthew 3:16 that rested on Christ at his baptism as a symbol of the Father's affection. The fowl could also be any other flying creature. See these also were contained in the sheet let down for Peter to eat. For what had been unclean was now made clean by the blood of his cross in Colossians 1:20. This creature is borne by four wings because there are four winds of Heaven and four corners of the earth. I believe there are four because they all fit together somehow. Could it be that these are the four wings of the fowl as in the Spirits of God, the powers of Heaven, and the form of the earth on which this beast rests. This leopard beast also has four heads and has been given dominion. Dominion over what is neither specified nor is there a time limit on this dominion. Therefore, since that of the first Adam was limited to the earth of Genesis 2:15. The last man Christ held a dominion that was an everlasting one as seen later in this text.

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. 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.

Because this portion receives an interpretation later, I will only note certain pieces. My, this is almost like a jigsaw puzzle, you must find the fitting pieces to complete the picture. Daniel himself says he was having visions. Therefore, as these things often do, the scenes change. This fourth beast had iron teeth; it broke its' victims in pieces just as King Nebuchanezzer promised the wicked wise men. If you recall, they could neither interpret nor believe in God. The residue of its' enemies is stomped into pieces like fine powder. Revelation 19:13-15 states that Christ Jesus came in with blood-stained clothes from treading through the wine press of God. This beast inspired fear in those who saw it and was unlike any of the other beasts. Ten horns arose from its head and, as we will see later, each horn had its own crown. Another little horn arose of whom the first three were deposed. The text says they were plucked up by the roots. To this beast there was none like any other and it spoke of a great deal. I would have to say that to the world this man seems very wise because of its' looks and speech. Even though the text says it had eyes like a man, I would fail to see why this detail holds any importance. Unless, as you remember, the animal eyes hold no free will of their own. Even so do those possessed under demonic control. Thus, this little horn is under the control of himself. We have seen similar behaviors before noted in Revelation under the subtitle of the Antichrist, the beast, and the false prophet.