I did a study on Daniels 4 beasts.
Here is the differences I found between Dan 2 and Dan 7 concerning the final gentile power
Dan 2:
Concerning the 4th beast
Legs of Iron)
1. Will crush all other kingdoms, and power and territory will excede all of the other kingdoms.(History shows Rome fulfilled this not only in area of the kingdom, but in the number of years she held power)
2. It was this kingdom which was in power during the time of Christ, during the time of the writing of revelation. and in 70 ad, It had one king (vespacian) and its power was at its fullest. The people of this king destroyed the city of jerusalam and its temple. (titus) who at the death of vespacian, became king of rome, proving that in this time, we were still under the 4th or roman kingdom of iron.
3. At sometime in history, will splinter into ten kingdom or ten parts
4. Will be divided but still have the strength of the original kingdom
5. partly strong and partly fragile (divided as it is not one kingdom in unity, but many kingdoms, which which will not adhere to one another (be in unity)
6. Christ himself (the stone) will destroy this kingdom (Stone hits the feet, which crush them) destroying this kingdom. causes all the gentile kingdome to crumble and fall, destroying all the gentile kingdoms (the statue) which was seen by nebechadnezzar. Leaving no trace of them behind (the end of Gentile dominion)
7. When the final kingdom (iron and clay) is destroyed, God himself will set up his kingdom, which will never be destroyed.
So what we have is this, in this shorter vision daniel is exposed to (a much greater one will come later)
1. only 4 kingdoms were in power up till Christ, the same 4th kingdom destroyed the city and temple.
2. History shows when Rome fell, it was divided into two parts (not ten) and then fell off the map.
3. Up until this day, there has been no nation which has had ten kings, which has part of the power of rome (iron) and part of the power of man (clay) thus, already in just the 2nd chapter of daniel, we have introduced a prophetic gap between the time the 4th kingdom suffered its mortal wound (died) and the restoration of that kingdom in a fractured way (iron and clay)
4. The final kingdom will be crushed by God himself, at that time, Gods kingdom will be established which will never be destroyed.
Dan 7
Lion with eagles wings - Babylon, we are told wings were plucked off (lost its power) and made to stand like a man. Nebachadnezar lost his power. and made to crawl like an animal later, stood up again and regained his power (after confessing one God)
bear, standing up on one side - Media Persia -two sided bear, One stronger than the other, History showed the medes were weaker power, Persia untied with them, and was much stronger. In fact most historians call this the perisan empire, 3 ribs = 3 kingdoms destroyed by the persions, They egyptian, assyrian and babylonian empires were taken by this power
leapard - 4 wings and 4 heads - greek - one power splintered into 4 when Alexander the great died at a young age.
Concerning the 4th beast;
1. huge and powerfull with iron teeth. - rome, again the iron kingdom. Again, the most powerful, Rome actually held more land than any kingdom previous and any since, It also had the longest reign of any of the previous kingdoms on earth (including back to Egyption kingdom)
2. then we are told out of this beast 10 horns will arise, which are ten kingdoms, out of which grows one horn which destroys three horns. he is given a mouth, and speaks pompous words. Had teeth of Iron and Nails of bronze (in chapter two it was iron and clay mixed)
what we see here is a more detailed vision which goes into greater detail than the basic one of daniel 2 of the 4th beast, Chapter 8 goes into greater detail of the second two empires The interpretation given is mostly concerning the 4th beast, which was great and terrible. What we also see is another example of a prophetic gap between the original roman empire, and the reformed roman ten king empire, however, this gap is made more clear here as we will see.
