Daniel 7:15 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the deep effect these visions had on the prophet. God honored Daniel through them and gave him comfort, but also a great deal of pain and confusion (Daniel 7:15). Daniel says he was grieved in his spirit, in the middle of his body. The word used for “body” here means something like a sheath or scabbard, because the body is only the outer covering of the soul, which is the more important part.

The visions in his mind troubled him again and again (Daniel 7:28). The way these things were shown to him overwhelmed him completely. His thoughts were strained so much that his strength failed, and the trance left him worn out and faint. What he saw was so surprising and disturbing that it put him in confusion. Only little by little did he gather himself, overcome the shock, and place the comfort of the vision against its terrors.

Daniel also wanted very much to understand what it all meant (Daniel 7:16). So he came near to one of those who stood by, one of the angels attending the Son of Man in his glory, and asked for the truth, that is, the real meaning, of all this. It is a good thing to seek the full and right sense of what we see and hear from God. Those who want to know must ask, through faithful and earnest prayer, and through diligent search.

The angel then gave Daniel the key to understanding the vision. He explained it plainly and made the matter clearer and easier for him. The great beasts represent great kings and their kingdoms, great rulers and the empires they lead, which rise from the earth, just as the beasts came up from the sea (Daniel 7:17). They are only people of the earth, made of dust, with their roots in the dust. They belong to this world, and to the dust they will return.

Daniel seems to understand the first three beasts fairly well. But he wants to know more about the fourth, because it was so different from the others and so terrifying. It was not only frightening, but also destructive, because it devoured and crushed everything in its way (Daniel 7:19). That may be why Daniel was so alarmed. This part of the vision troubled him more than the rest.

He especially wanted to know about the little horn, the one with eyes and a mouth that spoke very great things, and whose look was more bold and dreadful than the others (Daniel 7:20). He was most concerned about this because this horn made war against the saints and overpowered them (Daniel 7:21). When people simply make war against one another, Daniel does not show the same concern. But when they attack the saints, when the precious sons of Zion, who are like fine gold, are broken like clay jars, then it is right to ask what this means. Will the Lord abandon his people? Will he let their enemies trample them and boast over them? What is this horn that is allowed to prevail so far against the saints?

The angel answers that the fourth beast is a fourth kingdom, one that will devour the whole earth, or the whole land, as the wording may also mean (Daniel 7:23-25). The ten horns are ten kings, and the little horn is another king who will rise after them and bring three kings down. He will act with great arrogance against God and with great cruelty toward God’s people.

He will speak proud words against the Most High, openly challenging God, his authority, and his justice. He will also wear out the saints of the Most High. He will not destroy them all at once, but will grind them down through long oppression and constant hardship, ruining their property and weakening their families. Satan has always wanted to wear out the saints of the Most High so they are no longer remembered, but that effort will fail, because God will always keep a church in the world while the world stands.

This ruler will try to change times and laws, to destroy religious ordinances and institutions, and to force everyone to think and act as he wants. He will trample on human and divine laws and customs alike. He pulls down, builds up, and changes square things into round ones, as if he meant to alter even heaven’s own orders. In these bold efforts he will succeed for a time. They will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time, that is, three and a half years, a prophetic period also described in Revelation as forty-two months or 1,260 days.

But when that time is over, judgment will sit and his power will be taken away (Daniel 7:26). The explanation in verse 11 says the beast was killed and its body destroyed. And, as Mr. Mede reads verse 12, the rest of the beast, especially the ten horns and the troubling little horn, also had their power removed.

The question then is, who is this enemy whose rise, rule, and ruin are foretold? Interpreters do not agree. Some say the fourth kingdom was the Seleucid empire, and the little horn was Antiochus, with the prophecy fulfilled in the history of the Maccabees. Others say the fourth kingdom was Rome, and the little horn was Julius Caesar and the later emperors, or else the antichrist, the papal kingdom, that evil power which, like this little horn, will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s return. The pope claims a power to change times and laws, a completely absolute power, as he calls it. Others take the little horn to mean the Turkish empire.

I cannot prove either side wrong. Since prophecies can sometimes have more than one fulfillment, and Scripture should be given its full range, I am willing to allow that both views may be right. The prophecy seems to point first to the Syrian empire, and it was meant to encourage the Jews who suffered under Antiochus. They could see that even those sad times had been foretold, and that they would end in a glorious outcome, with their proud enemies finally overthrown. Best of all, they could also look ahead, not long after, to the setting up of the Messiah’s kingdom in the world, which was how the earlier prophets often comforted God’s people in their troubles.

This vision also looks ahead to the same kind of fierce persecution under pagan Rome and papal Rome, against the Christian faith, just as Antiochus had raged against the faithful Jews and their religion. John, in his visions and prophecies, which mainly point to Rome, clearly echoes many details from Daniel’s visions.

There is also a glad hope here, a picture of God’s kingdom spreading among people and finally winning over every enemy. It is striking that, right in the middle of the warnings about the enemies’ strength and violence, this hope is suddenly brought in (Daniel 7:18 and again Daniel 7:22), before the vision later explains it more fully (Daniel 7:26, Daniel 7:27). This points to three things: the peaceful days of the Jewish church after it survived Antiochus, and the victories God gave the Maccabees over their enemies; the setting up of the Messiah’s kingdom in the world through the preaching of his gospel, for Christ comes to rule by his Spirit and to make his saints kings and priests to God; and the second coming of Jesus Christ, when the saints will judge the world, sit with him on his throne, and share in the full defeat of the devil’s kingdom.

We can see several things foretold here. First, the Ancient of Days will come (Daniel 7:22). God will judge the world through his Son, to whom he has given all judgment, and as a pledge of that, he comes to rescue his oppressed people and set up his kingdom in the world. Second, the court will sit (Daniel 7:26). God will show that he rules on earth and will, with both wisdom and justice, defend his people’s rightful cause. At the great day he will judge the world in righteousness through the man he has appointed.

Third, the enemy’s rule will be taken away (Daniel 7:26). All Christ’s enemies will become his footstool, and they will be brought to ruin at last. Paul speaks this way about the man of sin, that is, the great lawless enemy of Christ, in (2 Thessalonians 2:8). He will be consumed by the breath of Christ’s mouth and destroyed by the brightness of his coming. Fourth, judgment is given to the saints of the Most High. The apostles were trusted with preaching the gospel, by which the world will be judged. All the saints, by their faith and obedience, condemn an unbelieving and disobedient world. In Christ their head, they will judge the world and the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). This should teach us to honor those who fear the Lord. However low and despised they may seem in the world’s eyes, they are the saints of the Most High. They are close to God, dear to him, and he owns them as his own. Judgment is given to them.

Fifth, and this is the main point, the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forever (Daniel 7:18). Again, in (Daniel 7:22), the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. And again, in (Daniel 7:27), the kingdom, the power, and the greatness of the kingdom under all heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. We should not take this to mean that power belongs to people because they are holy, or that anyone may claim worldly rule under the name of saintship. No, Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. Rather, this points to the saints’ spiritual rule over their own sinful desires and corrupt habits, their victories over Satan and his temptations, and the triumph of martyrs over death and its fear.

It also promises that the gospel kingdom will be established, a kingdom of grace, whose present blessings and comforts are the first taste, and the beginning, of the kingdom of glory in heaven. When the Roman Empire became Christian, and rulers used their power to protect and advance Christianity, then the saints possessed the kingdom in a real sense. The saints rule because the Spirit rules in them, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even their faith. They also rule as the kingdoms of this world are brought under Christ’s lordship. But the full fulfillment will come in the everlasting happiness of the saints, the kingdom that cannot be shaken, which we wait for according to his promise. That is the greatness of the kingdom, the crown of glory that never fades, the everlasting kingdom.

Notice how strongly this is stated in (Daniel 7:18): the saints will possess the kingdom forever, yes, forever and ever. The reason is that the One whose saints they are is the Most High, and his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom (Daniel 7:27). He is eternal, so theirs will be too. “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). His kingdom is their kingdom. They count themselves honored in his honor, and they ask for no greater joy than that all powers should serve and obey him, as they will (Daniel 7:27). All powers will either bow to his golden scepter or be crushed by his iron rod.

At the end, Daniel tells us how deeply this vision affected him. It shook him so much that his face changed and he became pale, but he kept the matter in his heart. The heart must be the storehouse of divine things. There we must hide God’s word, just as Mary kept the sayings of Christ in her heart (Luke 2:51). Daniel kept the matter in his heart, not to hide it from the church, but to keep it for the church, so that what he had received from the Lord he might give to the people fully and faithfully.

This is a lesson for God’s prophets and ministers. They must gather the things of God into their minds and digest them well there. If we want God’s word ready on our lips when we need it, we must keep it in our hearts at all times.