Detective Mystery, Part 1

        Have you ever wanted to be a detective? Maybe you’ve helped solve “mysteries” in your neighborhood, or community. I don’t know why, but something makes “secrets” thrilling! I know that very well. My friend and I are always into the latest secrets, trying to solve them. Well, anyway, even if you don’t become a detective when you grow up, did you know you can be a detective in the Bible? Sure enough, you can!

So, how do we become detectives of the Bible? And how do we find clues? Furthermore, what is the mystery? Well, the mystery is the “little horn” of the great beast in Daniel 7. And now let’s go look for clues. To find the clues, though, we have to go backward…we have to learn the circumstances surrounding this “little horn”. Perhaps you aren’t familiar with what I’m talking about at all! Well, that’s why we’re going to have a series, diving into this little horn.

First of all, the background. If we read Daniel 7, we’ll find that Daniel has a dream, aka a vision. When Daniel had dreams, they were important! “Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.” (NKJV, Daniel 7.2, and 3). Ok, so now that we know the beginning of his dream, let’s look for some clues.

From Jeremiah 49:36 and Revelation 7:1 we learn that in Bible prophecy, wind is a symbol of war. According to Revelation 17:15 water or seas in Bible prophecy is a symbol for many people. Habakkuk 1:8 tells us that wings, in Bible prophecy, represent speed. And, finally, according to Daniel 7:17, animals are kings or kingdoms in Bible prophecy.

So now we have some clues to replace words with! It would now read: “Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the wars of heaven were stirring up the people, and four great kingdoms came up from the sea, each different from the other.”

The first was a lion that had two eagle wings. Then, its wings were plucked off, it was given a man’s heart, and it stood on two feet like a man. Babylon conquered kingdoms very quickly at first, but then, by the time King Belshazzar took over, they weren’t even trying to conquer kingdoms. They were just careless, and partying. So the lion represented the kingdom of Babylon.

The next animal was a bear. It had three ribs in its mouth and was raised up on one side. Medo-Persia took over Babylon. Sure enough, the Persian part of the kingdom was stronger than the Median part. And, when they conquered Babylon, they also conquered Lydia and Egypt, three nations in total.

The third animal, or kingdom, was Greece. The leopard representing it had four heads and four wings. As far as speed went, Alexander the Great, Greece’s leader, conquered the world at lightning speed! Then he died at a very young age - he was only 30. As he was dying, four of his generals asked him who should reign in his place. He told them “the strongest”. Well, as you could imagine, these generals couldn’t decide who was the strongest, so they divided the kingdom into four parts. That’s why the leopard had four heads.

And then, the last beast was the most unique and the scariest! It was dreadful and terrible! It had humongous iron teeth. It crushed everything in its way. And it had ten horns. This was the horrible kingdom of Rome. This nation killed Jesus, and thousands and thousands of His followers. It tried to crush out the truth and the Bible.

Now, there were these ten horns. They were there because Rome was not followed by another single kingdom. Instead, it broke up into ten different countries. That is why it had ten horns. But, then, something happened to these horns! Three of the horns were pulled out by the roots by a little horn.

What does this horn represent? We’ll learn more about it later. We’ll learn all about what this kingdom did. And we’ll use clues, like detectives, to find out! So check out Part 2 of this amazing, detective adventure! (If this is the GOTW right now, the next part will be posted next week).

Works Cited:

"Daniel 7 (NKJV) - Daniel spoke, saying, I." Blue Letter Bible. Web. 24 Mar, 2023. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/dan/7/2/s_857002>.

~Alice