Four Beasts and the Ancient of Days

The last couple of days when I have read in the book of Daniel there have been these amazing stories that have really made sense. This morning, chapter 7 was a little different. It was super fun to read and I really enjoyed reading it, but there wasn't a story that really stuck out to me as much as the stories have in the previous couple of days.

Daniel chapter 7 starts out with Daniel having a vision about four beasts.

The first beast: The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. When Daniel looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it.

The second beast: This beast was like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, 'Arise, devour much flesh.'

The third beast: The third was like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

The fourth beast: The fourth beast was more terrifying than the rest. The fourth was dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all of the beast that were before it, and it had ten horns. Daniel considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. In this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

When these dreams were interpreted, Daniel learned that the four beasts represented four kings that were going to come from the earth.

The fourth beast was different. It was worse than all the rest. Here is what was interpreted about the fourth beast:

'As for the fourth beast,

there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth,
which shall be different from all the kingdoms,
and it shall devour the whole earth,
and trample it down, and break it to pieces. 
As for the ten horns,
out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise,
and another shall arise after them;
he shall be different from the former ones,
and shall put down three kings.
He shall speak words against the Most High,
and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,
and shall think to change the times and the law;
and they shall be given into his hand
for a time, times, and half a time. 
But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away,
to be a consumer and destroyed to the end.
And the kingdom and the dominion
and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven
shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;
his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,
and all dominions shall serve and obey him. ' 

I wanted to tell you about all of these beasts to show you that there are some pretty crazy stories in the bible. The bible isn't some boring book with lame stories. Every time you open your bible you will most likely read something really cool. The bible is for everyone. Maybe if we change our perspective on the bible we will read it more? Do you ever think about that? If you have the mindset that you are going to learn something and read some pretty cool things every time you read your bible, you will!

Speaking of learning some pretty cool things every time we open our bible, I learned something today for the first time. I learned that: "The Ancient of Days," is another name for God. I would've never known that.

Check our the scripture about The Ancient of Days.

"As I looked,

thrones were placed, 
and the Ancient of Days took his seat;
his clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames;
its wheels were burning fire.
A stream of fire issued 
and came out from before him;
a thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousands stood before him;
the court sat in judgment,
and the books were opened. 

This post was a little different this morning. It was more of story telling than encouragement. I hope that these cool stories helped changed our perspective about reading the bible. If there is one thing I hope you can take away from this, is that when you have a 'ready to learn' perspective when you open up your bible, you will learn more than ever.