Now we get to the easy bit of Daniel :-), the visions. If you look through this you will see that there are similarities to the sort of stuff we encounter in Revelation.
Note that the first vision was received in the "first year of Belshazzar", ie before the writing on the wall incident. Daniel received these at night and wrote down what he had seen.
The great sea (v2) represents the nations, the world. The four beasts that came out of the sea are four dynasties that came out of the world.
The first one represents Babylon, then in verse 4 we get the humbling of Babylon. Now remember that this is what happened to Nebuchadnezzar (chapter 4). The narrative and vision parts of Daniel fit together.
The second beast is the Medo-Persian empire. The part being raised up (v5) signifies the dominant role played by Persia. The three ribs might represent Lydia, Babylon and Egypt, its three main conquests.
The third beast was like a leopard. This represents Alexandra the Great and his speedy conquests. After his death the kingdom split into four parts.
The final beast is the Roman Empire. This one was different. The scale of its empire was greater, also it is used to signify the world in Revelation.
No comments:
Post a Comment