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The nature of the beast

Daniel 7 prophesies with great accuracy about a series of 4 world empires that were to arise after the fall of the Babylonian empire. Each empire is pictured by an animal (“beast”) that best describes the heart of that particular empire. They all have one main thing in common—like predatory beasts in the wild, they function on the principle of self-interest.

Babylon is a winged lion; Persia is a bear; Greece is a leopard; and Rome is a nameless beast with iron teeth and iron feet.

Furthermore, the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, provides us with a further insight in Daniel 4:25, when, due to his arrogance, God made him act like a beast for “seven times.” In his case, the king simulated a beast that ate grass, because “all flesh is grass” (Isaiah 40:6). So beasts consume grass by consuming people for their own sustenance.

The book of Revelation should be thought of as Daniel, part 2. It deals primarily with the fourth beast (Rome). Rome itself was divided into two main sections: Imperial Rome, ending in 476 A.D., and Religious Rome, that is the Vatican. Neither form of this Roman beast had any intention of setting people free but of subjecting them to Roman authority. Both operated in self-interest and sought to subject (and consume) people and nations for their own benefit.

At this end of the age, we are witnessing the rise of the Kingdom of God, which ultimately replaces the beast kingdoms (Daniel 7:27). This kingdom is based on love, not on self-interest. It is proven by the fact that its King (Jesus) was willing to die for the people, rather than having the people die for the King. The age to come will be characterized by love.

Predatory beasts have eyes in front; their prey have eyes on the sides of their head so that it can see when they are being chased. The natural man has eyes in front. He is in need of a change in his nature, which is accomplished by being begotten by the word of God and by being born of the Spirit.

The age to come is said to be a thousand years (Revelation 20:6). It will probably take that long to transform the kingdoms of this world. This pattern was set long ago under the Old Covenant kingdom of Israel. Speaking of the nations, we read God’s promise in Exodus 23:29, 30,

²⁹ I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ³⁰ I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.

God is never in a hurry. To Him, a thousand years is like a day. Our perspective is quite different, because we are driven by our mortality.

In the Old Testament kingdom, the Israelites failed to obey the laws of God, and so God brought judgment upon them. He sent beast nations to consume them. Ultimately, the Assyrian beast consumed Israel, and the Babylonian beast consumed Judah. This was prophesied in the laws of tribulation in Deuteronomy 28:26,

²⁶ Your carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

We have been prey to the beasts of the earth for thousands of years, all prophesied by Daniel. This was foretold in the laws of tribulation (Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28). Tribulation and captivity were set forth as divine judgment upon Israel for their failure to be transformed into the image of God. They preferred to imitate the ungodly nations, so God judged them by subjecting them to those beast nations that they wanted to emulate. Why? It was to teach them by hard experience the consequences of their actions.

Yet we today are coming to the end of this long judgment cycle. The year 2024 is 70 Jubilees since Israel crossed the Jordan under Joshua. In a sense, this has been our 70-year captivity on a longer scale. And fortunately, we now have a New Covenant by which we will succeed where Israel failed through the Old Covenant.

Under the New Covenant and its Mediator, Jesus-Yeshua, we are under the mandate of the Great Commission to teach all nations, rather than to destroy them as sinners. Ours is not a mandate for genocide but for salvation. In the end, Psalm 8:6, 7 will be fulfilled in Christ,

⁶ You make Him [Christ] to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under His feet. ⁷ All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field.

Isaiah 65:25 comments on this in a poetic way, saying,

²⁵ The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.

This pictures the salvation of the beast nations in the end. They will not be saved so that they may consume other nations as before. They will have a change in their nature/heart, so that they will no longer be predators. This change of nature is established through the New Covenant, which is God’s promise to man.

Under the Old Covenant, the law was a list of commands that men must do in order to be righteous. “You shall not steal” commanded men not to steal from others. But under the New Covenant, those same laws are the promises of God. “You shall not steal” is God’s promise to change our nature so that we will no longer steal from others. This is to be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the seed-word of God that begets the sons of God through faith.

When our heart is changed, we will have no desire to steal, to kill, to seek advantage over others for our own benefit. Our desire will be to love others and to build them up as equals in the knowledge of God and the principles of His Kingdom.