Deeper Reflection
The visions in Daniel 7-12 are complex. But they are not unrelated. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 parallels to Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7: Both are about four kingdoms in history with God’s everlasting kingdom as the climax (2:31-45; 7:1-14). “The visions of Daniel 2, 7, 8 and 10-12 are to be understood as complementary presentation of the same realities.”⁵ Daniel 9 consists of Daniel’s prayer of confession at the end of the “seventy years” of Babylonian exile (9:1-3) and God’s response with the vision of “seventy sevens/weeks” (9:23-27). And “the four-kingdom sequence in Daniel 2, 7, 8 and 10-12 will establish the framework within which the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 must be understood”⁶.One key focus in Daniel 7-12 is an anti-God king – referred to as “another horn, a little one” (Dan 7:8), “a rather small horn” (Dan 8:9), “the prince who is to come” (Dan 9:26) and “a despicable person” (Dan 11:21). This anti-God king is very arrogant. With “a mouth uttering great boasts” “he will speak against the Most High” (Dan 7:8, 25; 11:36) and “fling truth to the ground” (Dan 8:12). He will wage war against the people of God to wear them down and overpower them (Dan 7:21, 25).These visions pertain “to the time of the end” (Dan 8:17, 19; 10:14; 12:4, 13). When God’s people are persecuted by the anti-God king, they are to be faithful unto the den (like Daniel) – falling “by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder” (Dan 11:33). And be faithful until the end – to “keep waiting and attain to the 1,335 days” (Dan 12:12).

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⁵ ames M. Hamilton Jr., With the Clouds of Heaven: The Book of Daniel in Biblical Theology, New Studies in Biblical Theology (IVP, 2014), 104 ⁶ James M. Hamilton Jr., 87