The king’s dream also reveals to us that God is concerned and involved with our politics. Here we find God inflicting a king with dreams he can’t understand. This tells us that God was concerned and involved with the politics in Babylon. This was because the politics in Babylon had an effect on God’s plans for Israel.

For the same reason, God could well become involved in the politics of any nation, including America. In fact, I believe it would surprise us to know just how much God has been involved with our politics. The only reason we don’t see it is because God doesn’t always do what we expect Him to do. 

This brings us to another important key: “Look at things from God’s point of view.” This is because God sees things differently then we do. If you recall, in his dream the king saw a magnificent statue of a man. While he was watching, a stone struck the statue at its feet, destroyed it, and the stone became a huge mountain. God was revealing the future in a way this pagan king could especially appreciate. He was showing him what would happen to his kingdom and the kingdoms following his. 

Yet, as I said, God sees things from a different angle than we do. Later God gave the prophet Daniel a dream about the same future. But God revealed it to His faithful servant in a different way — the way He saw things. Instead of showing Daniel a magnificent statue of a man to represent the four Gentile kingdoms, God showed Daniel four wild beasts rising from the sea. 

The first beast Daniel saw was like a lion. This beast represented Babylon. The second resembled a bear. It represented Medo-Persia. The third was like a leopard and represented Greece. The fourth beast was not compared to any animal. It was different from all the other beasts – it had iron teeth and had ten horns. This beast represented Rome. 

Some Bible students believe these four beasts Daniel saw rising from the sea represent different kingdoms than those Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. One reason is because later – when the fourth and last beast is destroyed – Daniel says of the other beasts “an extension of life was granted them for an appointed period of time” (Daniel 7:12).These students reason that if these beasts represented the previous empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece, then it wouldn’t be possible for them to be given an extension of life. After all, these empires ceased to exist a long time ago. 

But I believe this opinion fails to take into consideration the on-going nature of these images of prophecy. In this passage where these beasts are granted an extension of life, they represent what remains of those Gentile kingdoms that are allowed into Christ’s earthly kingdom, only to once again be deceived by Satan a thousand years later (Matthew 25:31-46, Revelation 20:7-10). 

There is another indication that the beasts Daniel saw represented the same four kingdoms from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. It comes from his description of the first beast. Daniel wrote, “The first (beast) was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it” (Daniel 7:4). 

To understand Daniel’s statement, we need to use the keys we have learned so far. This lion Daniel saw rising from the sea represents Nebuchadnezzar from God’s point of view. How can we know this? Once, to teach this proud king a lesson in humility, God actually gave Nebuchadnezzar the mind of a beast for seven years. When the seven years ended, the Bible tells us this king looked up and gave honor to God. After he humbled himself by acknowledging God’s sovereignty, his human mind was returned to him. This is when, from God’s point of view, this pagan beast king was given the mind of a man. And this was the meaning of the first lion-like beast Daniel saw rising from the sea. 

Remember, God sees things differently than we do. We see our leaders and our governments as things of grandeur and beauty, but God considers them unreasoning and dangerous beasts that need to be restrained.