Let鈥檚 Look Closer: This chapter begins a new section of the book. To this point, it鈥檚 been stories about Daniel and his friends. But here, in chapter 7, we start seeing Daniel鈥檚 dreams and visions of future events.
This chapter contains a vision that tells the same story as chapter 2. A series of kingdoms will follow the current one, but God鈥檚 kingdom will defeat them all and continue forever. The critical difference is the additional detail regarding the fourth kingdom. Ten toes become horns representing kings and one of those kings directly attacks God and His people.
The first three beasts/kingdoms can be identified historically as Babylon, Persia, and Greece. The fourth could be the Roman empire, but it鈥檚 challenging to connect the details of the ten horns to past events. The events described may still be in the future for us. It鈥檚 certainly true that God鈥檚 kingdom hasn鈥檛 taken over the entire earth for all eternity.
Takeaway: That means that the kingdoms and nations we live in today still fit within Daniel鈥檚 outline of the future. We live under governments and within cultures that God will eventually destroy. We can鈥檛 expect them to be perfect and shouldn鈥檛 be surprised or angry when they fail to live up to God鈥檚 standards. That鈥檚 a reality yet to come. We must patiently wait for it to arrive and serve our ultimate King in the meantime.