Compare the beasts in Daniel 7:3 with Revelation's beasts. What similarities exist? Setting the Stage • Daniel 7:3 – “And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the others.” • Revelation 13:1 – “Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea.” Both visions open with monsters surging out of turbulent waters—imagery that signals opposing world powers stirring from the chaos of fallen humanity. Who Are the Beasts? • Lion with eagle’s wings (v. 4) • Bear raised up on one side (v. 5) • Leopard with four wings and four heads (v. 6) • “Terrifying and dreadful” beast with iron teeth and ten horns (v. 7) Revelation 13 & 17 • Beast from the sea: seven heads, ten horns, composite features of lion, bear, and leopard (13:2) • Beast from the earth (false prophet) with two horns like a lamb, speaking like a dragon (13:11) • Scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns carrying the woman Babylon (17:3) Key Similarities • Origin in the sea – Both rise from the same symbol of restless nations (Isaiah 57:20). • Composite animal imagery – Daniel’s four beasts are separate; Revelation 13:2 fuses lion, bear, and leopard traits into one creature, showing continuity of the same Gentile power stream. • Ten horns – Daniel 7:7, 24; Revelation 13:1; 17:12 – Ten contemporaneous kings/jurisdictions attached to the final world empire. • Blasphemous speech – Daniel 7:8, 11, 25: “a mouth that spoke words of arrogance” – Revelation 13:5-6: “the beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant and blasphemous words.” • Persecution of the saints – Daniel 7:21: “the horn was waging war against the saints” – Revelation 13:7: “it was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them.” • Time-limited authority – Daniel 7:25: “time, times, and half a time” (3 ½ years) – Revelation 13:5: “authority to act for forty-two months” (3 ½ years). • Divine judgment follows – Daniel 7:26: “the court will convene, and his dominion will be taken away” – Revelation 19:20: “the beast was captured… thrown alive into the lake of fire.” Shared Purpose in Prophecy 1. Identifying successive Gentile empires and their culmination in a final, God-defying world power. 2. Preparing believers to recognize the character of that last empire—arrogant, persecuting, blasphemous, and short-lived. 3. Underscoring God’s sovereignty: every beast rises only because “the Most High rules the kingdom of men” (Daniel 4:17) and will be overthrown by Christ the conquering King (Revelation 11:15). Takeaway Daniel gives the blueprints; Revelation supplies the finishing details. The beasts mirror each other to assure us that history is marching exactly as foretold, and that every roaring empire will ultimately bow to “the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 5:12). |
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