If You Understand Daniel 7, You Understand the Book of Revelation 

If You Understand Daniel 7, You Understand the Book of Revelation

Daniel 7 is the key that opens the book of Revelation. If John, Revelation’s author, took his beasts from Daniel, he took one more thing, the answer to who holds their power. In Revelation 13, a beast climbs from the sea, leopard-like, with a bear’s feet, a lion’s mouth. Daniel 7 has the same three animals, and one verb hangs over them, was given.

That’s lease language, and every lease has an end date. Daniel wrote that verb in Aramaic, and John wrote it in Greek. Here’s what the key gives you. Daniel 7 has four scenes, beasts rising from the sea, a court taking its seat, a human figure arriving on the clouds, and the saints receiving a kingdom. Revelation restages all four, the beast in chapter 13, the throne room in chapters 4 and 5, the cloud rider in chapter 1, and the saints’ thrones in chapter 20.

 So, when a scene loses you, ask which of Daniel’s four you’re standing in. But, the verb does more than sort scenes. Look at what that beast is handed in Revelation 13, a mouth, a mouth that boasts and blasphemes. Even the blasphemy comes out of a mouth that was given. Hold on to that, because in Daniel 7, dominion changes hands three times, and the same verb does the handing every time.

 First, it goes to the beasts. Then, it goes to someone who arrives on the clouds. Then, it goes to a third group, the saints [music] of the Most High. And one of those hands belongs to a man who stood before Israel’s high priest one night and told him who would be arriving on those clouds. We’ll get to that room. First, we go to Babylon, [music] to an old exile and a dream he put in writing.

Daniel’s dream starts with water. It’s the first year of Belshazzar, around 553 BC, and Daniel, decades into his exile, lies in bed and sees the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea. When an angel explains a similar picture to John in Revelation 17, the waters turn out to be peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.

Daniel’s sea reads the same way. Humanity churning, and out of it, one after another, come four beasts. The first is a lion with an eagle’s wings. Daniel watches the wings get plucked off. The lion is lifted from the ground, made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man is given to it. There’s the verb again.

And Daniel has seen this exchange before. In chapter 4, a king who boasted from his palace roof is given the mind of a beast, and seven periods of time pass over him. Babylon is the usual reading of the lion, and it fits. A beast handed a man’s mind, a man handed a beast. The second is a bear, raised up on one side, with three ribs between its teeth.

The detail that’s easy to skip is that it doesn’t wake up hungry. It’s told what to do. “Arise, devour much flesh.” Someone is giving that bear its orders, and Daniel doesn’t say who. Not yet. The third is a leopard with four birds’ wings on its back and four [music] heads. The line that carries the weight comes next. Dominion was given to it.

Even a beast [music] built for speed has to be handed its crown. Then the fourth. Daniel can’t find an animal for it, so he lists what he sees. Terrifying, dreadful, exceedingly strong, with great iron teeth. It swallows, crushes, and tramples whatever’s [music] left. It’s unlike any beast that came before, and it has 10 horns.

 So, look at what Daniel has been writing down. A mind was given, an order was passed down, and a crown, the whole dominion, was handed to a leopard. The beasts do the devouring, but the authority to do it keeps arriving from somewhere else. And once you see that, a bigger question walks into the room. If the beasts are all receiving, who is doing the giving? There’s a detail hiding in plain sight.

Daniel doesn’t have to guess who does the giving. >> [music] >> He’s said it out loud before. In chapter 4, he interprets a king’s dream. He tells Nebuchadnezzar he’ll live with the beasts of the field until he learns that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. A year later, with the words still in the king’s mouth, a voice from heaven says it again.

The question Daniel 7 leaves hanging already has an answer. Seen that way, the dream is the same sentence scaled up from one king to four empires with the same Most High behind every crown. Back in chapter 2, Daniel told that very king that the God of heaven had given him the kingdom, the power, the might, and the glory.

 It’s the same giver on a bigger stage. The verb Daniel 7 keeps using is the Aramaic yahav, to give, and it shows [music] up eight times in this one chapter. We’ll follow everyone, but notice what it does to the beasts already. They aren’t owners, they’re tenants. Their power is real, and it’s on loan. John’s beast gets the same treatment.

 In Revelation 13:5, it was given a mouth, and a few words later, it was allowed to exercise authority. Same Greek verb both times, And the ESV isn’t alone in rendering the second one aloud. The reading of this video will be short. The beasts of Daniel and Revelation hold borrowed authority given for a term. The kingdom itself is given to the saints.

That’s the first hand the beasts receive. But one horn on the fourth beast holds a loan that reaches further than any of the others, all the way to God’s own people. And the sentence Daniel writes about it is one of the hardest in the chapter. Daniel looks harder at those 10 horns. Another one pushes up among them, a little one, and three of the first horns are pulled out by the roots to make room.

 This horn has eyes like a man’s and a mouth speaking great things. And it wages war on the saints and prevails over them. Listen to the line Daniel writes about that. They shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. Same verb. Yahav. The one who handed a leopard its crown is now handing God’s own people into a persecutor’s grip.

 And notice what the verb refuses to say. It doesn’t say God approves of what that horn does. It says the horn’s reach was granted. And a granted reach has edges. This one has its edge written into the sentence itself. The horn is a tenant with a heavy hand. And even his lease is dated. The chapter’s word for what he does to the saints is wear out. That’s a slow verb.

If you’ve ever felt it, >> [music] >> you know it doesn’t always arrive as a sword. Sometimes it’s a woman who has learned [music] exactly which subjects to skip at her office lunch table. She isn’t ashamed. She’s tired. And every so often she wonders whether the people setting the tone in that room are just winning.

 What Daniel describes is far heavier than an awkward lunch. But the direction of the pressure is the same. And so is the word Daniel attaches to it. Until. Keep that phrase, a time, times, and half a time, because John will come back for it. Daniel can still hear the horns boasting when the scene changes. Thrones are put in place. The Ancient of Days takes his seat.

 His clothing white as snow. A river of fire flowing out from before him. The court sits, and the books come open. Once you see the verb, you can’t unsee it. And it’s written all over the ending. The fourth beast is slain, and its body is given over to the fire. Given. The rest of the beasts have their dominion taken away.

 The same dominion that the leopard was handed earlier in the dream. But their lives are prolonged for a season and a time. And the word for that extension is Yahav, again. Even the grace period was granted. That’s a beast’s career, and one verb marks it three times. Dominion was given. A season was granted. A body was handed to the flames.

The beasts never owned the dominion they held, or the days they had left. That’s what a lease looks like when it runs [music] out. Possession ends, and even the extra time was the owner’s to give. Then someone else walks into that room. Daniel sees one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.

 And he’s presented before the Ancient of Days. A human being, and yet he arrives by cloud, the way the Old Testament likes to picture God traveling. Now watch what the verb does when it changes direction. To him, Daniel writes, was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. It’s the same verb and the same first gift, dominion, that the leopard was handed back in verse six.

 But, compare the terms. The rest of the beasts had their lives prolonged for a season and a time. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. The beasts held whatever their empires could reach, and he’s handed every people, nation, and language. The beasts were handed a lease, and he was handed the deed.

That’s the second hand, and with it the chapter’s question changes. It began by asking who stands behind the beasts. Now, it’s asking who this is, the one to whom the owner hands everything, and puts no date on any of it. Keep that figure in mind. We’ll meet him again one night in front of a room full of judges.

Daniel can’t make sense of what he’s seen, so he asks one of those standing nearby, and the answer is short. The beasts are four kings, but the saints of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever. Then the chapter says it twice more, and this time the verb is the one we’ve been following.

 In verse 22, judgment is given for the saints. In verse 27, the kingdom, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high. That’s the eighth and last time. Eight of eight, and the three hands are on the table. The saints don’t get a lease at all.

 They come to possess the kingdom. The chapter sets the son of man and the saints side by side, and it doesn’t stop to explain how the two fit together. This video won’t pretend to settle that. It says what the chapter says. This is where the kingdom ends up. Hold on to those three hands. On the island of Patmos, John uses [music] this verb again and again in a single chapter, and every use is attached to a beast.

 Here is the part that’s easy to read right past. Revelation 13 [music] uses the verb six times. Beyond the mouth and the authority, there’s a war against the saints and a reach over every tribe, people, language, and nation. Then for a second beast, signs to perform and breath to put into an image. Commentators like Robert Mounce and Brian and Blount read the whole run of them the same way.

 The beast acts, but only inside limits it didn’t set. The term comes next. Daniel handed the horn a time, times, and half a time, and John came back for it, just as promised. Revelation 12 measures the woman’s shelter in the wilderness twice as 1,260 days and as a time and times [music] and half a time. Revelation 13 gives the beast 42 months.

However you read those numbers, literal or symbolic, they’re one span in three sets of units, and the oldest of them is Daniel’s. And Revelation 12:14 has the verb, too. The woman was given the two wings of the great eagle. The beast’s lease and her shelter run on the same calendar. Both are given and both are dated.

The throne room shows up as well. In Revelation 5, >> [music] >> John counts the crowd around the throne 10,000 * 10,000 and thousands of thousands. That’s the count Daniel gives for the crowd around the Ancient of Days. Watch where the verb lands at the far end of the book. Revelation 20:4 opens with thrones, [music] and in the Greek it says simply, “Judgment was given to them.

” That’s the clause Daniel used in chapter 7, verse 22. And it goes to the people who refused [music] the beast. The beast is given a term. The saints are given judgment, and they sit on thrones. And the second hand is in there, too. At the start of the book, John hears [music] that he’s coming with the clouds.

 And then he turns and sees one like a son of man among the lampstands. There’s no the in front of it in the Greek. He says what Daniel said. He does it again in chapter 14, on a white cloud with a golden crown. So, John and Daniel agree about who rides the clouds. What neither of them tells you is how a man walking dusty roads in Galilee dared to claim that seat in front of the very court that condemned him.

And listen for the verb. It’s about to turn up in his own mouth. It’s night, and the room is full of judges. Jesus has been led to the high priest, and the chief priests and the whole council are looking for testimony that will put him to death. They can’t find any. Plenty of people speak against him, but their stories don’t agree.

 The high priest stands up in the middle of the room and asks the one question left. Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed? Jesus answers, I am, and you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. He could have stopped at I am. Instead, he reaches for two Old Testament pictures [music] and folds them into one sentence.

The seat at God’s right hand is Psalm 110, where David’s lord sits beside God. The clouds are Daniel 7. And the one who comes with the clouds is the one who, in Daniel’s dream, >> [music] >> is given a dominion that shall not pass away. Everything we’ve been following just [music] walked into a room in Jerusalem and said, “I am.

” The high priest [music] rips his garments and announces that they’ve all heard blasphemy. The council condemns him as deserving death. Hold that room in your mind. The man Daniel saw receiving a kingdom standing in front of the court that will hand him over to be killed. After the tomb, 11 men climb a mountain in [music] Galilee.

 When they see him, they worship him, though some doubt. And Jesus comes up to them and says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Hear the verb. In Greek, it’s edothe, which was given. The same word that hangs on each beast in Revelation 13 and hands the saints their judgment in Revelation 20. Now set his sentence beside Daniel’s.

 To him was given dominion, and all authority has been given to me. Same verb, same recipient, and the same reach. All authority here, and in the very next sentence, all nations. Daniel wrote that sentence in Babylon. Jesus says it on a mountain out loud to 11 people, some of whom still aren’t sure, and the deed has changed hands.

But he’d already told them what he would do with it. Go back to the table on the very night of that trial and listen. I assign to you, as my father assigned to me, a kingdom. Luke uses a different Greek word there, and translators reach for assign, confer, or appoint. But the gesture is the same. A kingdom passed down a line of hands from the father to the son to them.

So, the second hand doesn’t clutch the deed. He turns around and starts passing it on, which brings us to the third hand. The saints aren’t a category in a dream. Revelation is addressed to churches in real cities, some of them under real pressure. So, be honest about what the verb does and doesn’t promise. >> [music] >> In Revelation 13, the beast is given the power to make war on [music] the saints and to conquer them.

 Nothing in that verb says the beasts can’t hurt you. A few verses later, the text says what it wants instead. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. What the verb promises [music] is smaller and it holds. Whatever authority a beast has, it was handed and whatever it was handed has an edge. Seven times the letters that open the book repeat one line.

 He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Not what the beast says and not what the loudest voice in your feed says. John tells you how he received all of it. He was in the spirit on the Lord’s day. The churches were meant to listen the same way. And if you’re honest, there are probably two small things you haven’t said out loud.

 The fact that you’ve quietly stopped telling people what you believe about how history ends, the way the woman at that lunch table did, because being asked to explain it costs more than staying vague. And the fact that when someone says end times, you feel a small tightening and you’ve kept to yourself whether it’s fear or embarrassment.

Both of those are what it sounds like when a beast’s volume gets mistaken for its authority. The sentence for the third hand comes from Jesus. He says it to the disciples whom he has just told not to be anxious about food or clothes, people worried about tomorrow. This is what he tells them. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father’s [music] good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Good pleasure. A kingdom handed over by a father who is glad to hand it over with no lease to renew and no wage to earn by getting the timeline right. The beasts were only ever handed power. If you’re following him, that sentence has your name on it. Daniel 7 was the key and the key turned out to be one verb.

It comes down to two kinds of holding. Power for a [music] term given to the beasts. A kingdom with no date on it given to the Son of Man and through him to the saints. That doesn’t make the beasts any smaller than they are. It just puts a date on them. Revelation stops looking like a maze of images and starts looking like a set of papers changing hands.

 Who holds a lease? Who holds the deed? And who is being handed the keys? That won’t decode every image in the book. It does tell you what kind of book you’re holding. If you know someone who closed Revelation because none of it seemed to connect, send them this. The beasts were only ever tenants and the owner is already handing the keys to the little flock.