In our first two studies we sought to set forth some important, though basic, prophetic truths that are found on the very surface of these two chapters. I would like now to begin to look at some of the specific details, given us in these same chapters, of the character of the regime of these four kingdoms, especially the fourth and final kingdom.
1. We should note that the divine depiction of the kingdoms is that of each one being more wicked than the one before! There is progression but it is downward. The creatures symbolising the four kings/kingdoms are increasingly fierce and cruel. We move from a ‘lion’ to a ‘bear’ with prey in its mouth and which is engaged in the ‘devouring of much flesh’. We then move to a ‘leopard’, a strikingly beautiful and sleek creature, but a cruel ambush predator. It is followed finally by an indescribable creature which was “dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it,” Daniel 7:7.
The Descent
The descent into depraved cruelty is also demonstrated in the early depictions of these four kingdoms, recording in chapter 2.
There we are told of a decline from ‘fine gold’, to ‘silver’, to ‘brass’, to ‘iron’ and finally to ‘clay’! The ‘value’ of these kingdoms, as pictured by these metals and clay, is subject to ‘deflation’! Just as a nation that possesses gold is benefitted by what that precious metal can buy and likewise, a nation with no gold but ‘silver’, will not enjoy benefits to the same degree as the nation possessing gold.
These kingdoms slip from a substantial measure of benefits enjoyed by the inhabitants, to a lower and lower level of enjoyment of life’s comforts. The gold evolves to silver, to brass and finally to iron and clay.
Further Described
The kingdom is further described for us in the answer given to Daniel by the angel.
“Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces,” Daniel 7:23. Its diversity from the other kingdoms is repeated, for the same thing is said earlier in verse 7.
The word ‘diverse’ does not tell us that it was ‘different’ in character from the other three kingdoms, but rather that was ‘transformed’, it had changed (as the Hebrew equivalent of the Aramaic here translated as ‘diverse’, shows us in the other places it appears) into a more devilish system of evil!
The word is translated ‘changed’ in 2 Kings 25, when the release of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, from captivity by Evilmerodach king of Babylon, takes place.
“And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison; And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon; And changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life. And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life,” verses 27-30.
Jehoiachin putting off prison garb and putting on robes more fitting his status, did not change his character. Likewise, the ‘diverseness’ of the final kingdom from the three previous kingdoms was not a change in character but rather in the degree of evil that marked it in the vision given to Daniel
Man in Control
When man is in control and he is heedless of the counsel and wisdom of God’s Word, then that which he controls is subject to a downward trajectory! This is the very opposite to what man would foolishly claim is taking place in the world. Man believes that an UPWARD evolution is underway!
We see the impact of godless man’s notion being put into practice here in the United Kingdom. Every element of the fabric of our society is decaying. The social structures, which have served us well in the past, are falling apart all around us. Our national institutions of health and welfare, the means of maintaining peace and order and safety on our streets, the barriers to immorality and degeneracy — all have been broken down and abandoned and a growing anarchy is emerging!
Exalting
God’s Word puts the matter succinctly. “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people,” Proverbs 14:34.
This truth is further enlarged upon in Deuteronomy 28:1-9.
“And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.”
It was the gospel which brought the benefits of ‘civilisation’, that is, an orderly society governed for the benefits of its citizens. It is not man ‘evolving’ to a higher level of morality that has brought benefits to nations.
That cannot be! Man’s instincts are flawed and depraved. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,” Proverbs 14:12. Hitler’s dreams of national prosperity and advancement ended in the ruins of a defeated and decimated Germany and that in but a few brief years!
Only the gospel can direct individuals or communities or nations to the path “which leadeth unto life,” Matthew 7:13.
These four great kingdoms have demonstrated that in their activities, which are now history, and in the depraved actions that will be manifested at the re-emergence and final manifestation of the fourth kingdom there has been a bringing of a fulness of misery to those who fall under their sway, which is unparalleled in the other histories of the nations!
I would suggest that the growing anarchy and moral chaos we see all around us, is a foretaste of what is to come!
2. The fourth kingdom is depicted as a beast with ten horns. “ . . . and it had ten horns,” verse 7. We are told what they symbolise in verse 24.
“And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.” We are thus told that the territory of the fourth kingdom shall be comprised of ten kingdoms or territories. In a somewhat similar fashion, the United States comprises fifty states, each with a large degree of autonomy, but with a Federal Government at the top of the governmental structure. I do not believe that the ten kingdoms of the fourth kingdom will have the same degree of autonomy as the 50 states in the USA.
We are told in the last book of the Bible of more details regarding these ten kings. “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful,” Revelation 17:12-14.
3. From the midst of the ten kingdoms shall come a little horn. “I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things,” Daniel 7:8.
The word ‘little’ suggests to us that this ‘horn’ or king, was, at the first, one considered to be insignificant and will be dismissed as unimportant. But that will be a most foolish estimation of him for the ‘little horn’ is the one who will rise to become the ‘Antichrist, the man of sin and son of perdition’! He will rise up to defy the Lord as no man has ever done before.
His appearing as a ‘little horn’ is part of his deceitful guise and the means he employs to gain the position of dominance he seeks.
That has ever been the devil’s way!
Judas
Judas was the most ‘insignificant’ of the apostles and yet what evil he wrought! He also was given by Christ the title that has been placed upon the Antichrist. This is seen in the Saviour’s prayer in John 17.
“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled,” John 17:12.
The “creepers: Jude in his epistle refers to also display this adopting of a clandestine, furtive persona in order to gain a position from which to work evil.
“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” Jude 1:4.
The parable of the ‘Tares and the Wheat’ (Matthew 13:24-30) sets forth this same truth! Evil begins in secret and often it is some time before it is revealed for what it really is!
It was the devil who invented the ‘Trojan Horse’ tactic to infiltrate the camp of his enemies, the people of God!
4. The ‘little horn’ will advance deceitfully to a position by craft and pretence. Daniel 11 gives us further details of his rise. “And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant. And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people. He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time,” Daniel 11:21-24.
His deceitfulness will be the means whereby he will gain the confidence of the unregenerate Jews, He will enter a covenant with them with promises of prosperity. Again, Daniel supplies us with information of this.
“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate,” Daniel 9:27.
This ‘week’ is a period of seven years. This can be seen in Genesis when Jacob was deceived by Laban regarding the obtaining of Rachel for his wife.
“And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also,” Genesis 29:25-28.
The period that Jacob served for Rachel was seven years and it is called a ‘week’.
Thus the period of the covenant AntiChrist will make with the Jews is seven years but he will break it after three and a half years. He will break it by throwing off the cloak of disguise as their pretended friend that he has been wearing. Christ warned the Jews of their receiving of him, in John 5:43.
“I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”
Covenant Broken
The Saviour in that wonderful chapter 24 of Matthew tells us of Antichrist’s breaking his covenant with the Jews and the horrific tribulation that will immediately commence, by quoting from the verses we have given you above.
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet {Daniel 9:27}, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be,” Matthew 24:15-21.
That ‘great tribulation’ will last for a period defined in Holy Scripture as ‘a thousand two hundred and threescore days’ (Revelation 12:6)’; ‘a time, and times, and half a time’ (Revelation 12:14) and ‘forty and two months’ (Revelation 13:4).
This is the ‘trouble’ out of which the Lord will ‘save Jacob’. “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it,” Jeremiah 30:7.
The ‘trouble’ is the fruit of the sins of Israel, since the tragic rejection and crucifixion of their ‘Messiah’, that the poor Jews have been storing up for themselves by their ongoing spurning of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Intervention
Zechariah the prophet tells of the final days of the ‘great tribulation’ and the great and glorious intervention by the Lord to save His ancient people from annihilation.
“The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God. In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.” Zechariah 12:1-9.
The anti-Jewish animosity here in these verses is to be seen beginning to rise to new levels amongst the nations, including the United Kingdom!
Zechariah tells us more, for there is a spiritual, saving work that will be done amongst the remnant that have been preserved through the trouble.
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land,” Zechariah 12:10-13:2.
In chapter 14, Zechariah reiterates the truth of the coming climax of the ages, centred as it will be on Jerusalem and the Jewish remnant there.
“Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee,” Zechariah 14:1-5.
The time of Israel’s blindness and affliction will end with the return of Christ.
“For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer,” Isaiah 54:7-8.
“Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations,” Isaiah 60:8-15.
We will conclude this study with the words of the Saviour Himself, given us in Matthew 24.
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other,” Matthew 24:29-31.
Dear Christian, why would any true believer wish to carelessly ignore such a glorious revelation as that given us in Bible prophecy and, worse still, why would anyone, who calls himself a servant of the Lord, seek to persuade the flock of God that the perusal of God’s inspired prophecies ought to be avoided as such is an exercise that is unprofitable?
I know why the devil would have such Scripture ignored! For therein, written large, is his obituary, the record of his defeat and final and eternal damnation. His evil scheming will come to nothing and Christ, maligned, slandered, mocked, vilified and derided by him and his evil acolytes, will be praised as KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!
“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever,” Revelation 11:15.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Saturday, 12th July 2025