Lesson 21: Daniel’s First Vision

 Daniel 7:1-6  
1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.
2 Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.
3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.
4 The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it.
5 And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’
6 After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

The first six chapters of Daniel have been history. With this chapter we begin to study Daniel’s visions from God through which He would give us information about the future. A first important question is: why would God tell us the future? One answer is that God does so to prove that He truly is God. Another reason is that He wants us, who are His children, to know what is coming so that when bad things happen, we can remain calm in the certain knowledge that He is still in control.

The first image in this vision is the four winds stirring up the great sea. This great sea is a symbol of the Gentile nations that are stirred up by the evil one against God and His people, Israel. All through scripture we find that Satan hates both God and Israel and, since he cannot destroy God, he does everything he can to destroy Israel. History is full of these attempts, and each one has failed.


The four beasts that come up from the sea are the same nations as represented by Nebuchadnezzar’s statue in Chapter 2. The difference is that Nebuchadnezzar’s statue presented man’s view of the governments of the world, while in Daniel’s dream, the animals presented God’s view of these governments. Dr. Strauss suggests that the lion standing up might be a reference to Nebuchadnezzar becoming a man of God.

The bear, raising itself on one side, showed that the Persian side of the Medo-Persian Empire would become the stronger of the two. A bear might be slower and less regal than a lion, but it is more powerful.

The leopard showed the speed with which Alexander the Great would conquer the world, and the four heads showed the four leaders of this empire who would follow Alexander after his death – his four generals.

Again, Dr. Strauss suggests that showing the governments as animals shows the bloodthirsty passion for dominance that man’s kingdoms prove to be.

*How do you see history with different eyes when you see it from God’s point of view?