GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
DANIEL 7:6-7
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6 After this (I was still watching) and there was another beast, like a leopard. But it had four wings, like a bird’s, on its back. The beast had four heads, and authority to rule was given to it.
The leopard was a feared predator of the ancient world. This concern continues today, although more so in India and certain parts of central Africa than in the Middle East. The leopard attacks without warning and with incredible speed and stealth. The “mountain haunts of leopards” were always a concern (Song of Solomon 4:8). Leopards are known to “lie in wait near towns” to attack people in the evening (Jeremiah 5:6), often near a path or road (Hosea 13:7). The passages cited here are supported by modern warnings given to villages and tribes that live where leopards still live in the wild.
In the case of this visionary leopard, it is the speed of the beast that is emphasized, even more than usual (“swifter than leopards,” Habakkuk 1:8) since it has the wings of a bird– and this is even doubled, since in nature birds have two wings, but this winged leopard has four.
The four heads only make sense if we understand that this must be the very same kingdom that was also represented by the bronze kingdom in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: Greece. Alexander the Great was going to arrive on the scene and conquer most of the known world between 336 and 323 BC, just a little more than two hundred years in Daniel’s future. He moved with remarkable speed and brilliant leadership. But Alexander died young (not quite 33 years old), and his kingdom was broken apart into four kingdoms. This is probably the meaning of the four heads, although it is possible that the habit of Greece was to look in every direction for its prey. But I think that the four kingdoms remaining after Alexander’s death is the more fitting interpretation, and we will see this more in the vision about the goat in chapter 8.
7 After this I saw in that vision at night a fourth beast: terrible and frightening and very strong. It had large iron teeth. It crushed and devoured, and trampled what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it. It had ten horns.
Daniel saw a fourth monstrous beast, this one more monstrous than the others. He calls it “terrible, frightening, and very strong.” Its power is described in terms that remind us of the (Persian) bear: iron teeth, crushing, devouring, and then trampling the table leavings. And there was a difference. Before we consider the difference (ten horns), we will learn something important from the verb, “it was different.” Here we find a participle (some readers think of them as “-ing” words) in the Aramaic pael stem. This verb form is similar to the Hebrew piel, and there are many, many uses for the piel stem. A whole toolbox of grammatical possibilities opens up with this kind of verb. But it isn’t for us to pick and choose, but instead, to notice what is being said, and see what significance that has for us. In this case, a rare use of the pael is in place. The word “become different” (shanah) is usually transitive, meaning it shows a change in the action of its noun. In this case, the (pael) stem or form of the verb shows us that this was not a change. Grammatically, we would call this the intransitive use of the verb. This means that the fourth kingdom did not make any changes “to be different,” but that it was always different from the others. It was never like them. So now we see the significance of the iron teeth and the trampling feet: its ferocity was more terrible than any of the other kingdoms. Rome moved even more swiftly than Greece, was more unified as a military force than Persia, and was far less tolerant or content with its conquests than Babylon.
This fourth kingdom had ten horns. Animals in the wild, whether cattle, deer, sheep, or giraffes, usually only have two horns. A creature with ten horns (not tines, as with many deer, but separate horns) is shown to have extraordinary power. As the vision is described in more detail, we will explore the Roman empire with more detail. But we have certainly reached what was the kingdom composed of both iron and clay in the earlier vision (chapter 2).
The number ten does not necessarily indicate ten kings, or ten kingdoms, but that a certain many kingdoms came from it, and it is the complete number God ordained should appear. For just as four in a vision signifies the four winds or the four corners of the world, and therefore the world itself, so also ten signifies completeness, like the number of fingers for a newborn baby. Remember that Jesus uses “ten” as the number of virgins preparing for the return of the bridegroom, signifying all of mankind (Matthew 25:1), and perhaps the ten days of persecution foreseen by God in Revelation 2:10.
Something else for us to pick up on here is that even though these kingdoms received their authority to rule from God, they often abused that authority. But more importantly, we see that they did not use that authority to give God glory. So when, according to the Fourth Commandment, Alexander and the Roman Caesars had the divine right from God (even though they were heathens without any faith) to rule their kingdoms, they did not do so to God’s glory. If they were attacked, they had the right to defend themselves even though it meant the deaths of many people, and not just soldiers, for many innocent people die in a war. But when the Greeks and Romans wanted more elbow room and coveted the territory given to other rulers, also by the hand of God, that was sinful and a violation of the Fourth and Ninth Commandments, since they coveted another man’s property and home, and made war against a king or other ruler to take away what God had given him.
But we dare not say, “That was them; I can’t violate the commandment that way.” No, for we break the same commandments when we covet another person’s property, even down to his pencil, his notebook, her shoes, or her ribbons. They are not ours, and God added the Ninth Commandment to teach us to be careful about the desires of the sinful flesh. Some of those desires are terribly wicked. Others seem small and insignificant. But they are sins nevertheless. And on top of it all, when we do something that is right and correct– such as obeying a parent, or teacher, or pastor, or the government, or being content with our own possessions– if we do these seeming good and right things with the wrong motive, or without faith in Christ, then they are still sinful, and they still stink in God’s nostrils. So we have a great deal to repent of. And a huge, historical vision like Daniel’s does not have to make our heads spin because it is on a such vast scale beyond comprehension. No, this vision can also teach us to beware our own motives for obeying God’s laws, to examine our hearts, and examine our lives, and make repentant changes to love and cherish our God and his laws. And to keep them because our Jesus forgave our sins and our mistakes. And so we can show our love and thanks to him in many, many ways. For not all sins can be pictured by winged leopards and monsters with many horns. Most can be pictured with nothing but a scowl, or a frown, or the wrong kind of a smile. Love your Lord God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and with all your strength.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Daniel 7:6-7 The leopard and the ten-horned beast