1. The World Empires
as shown in
Daniel chapter 7
PART ONE

2. In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.
Daniel 7:1

3. Daniel spoke and said, “I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.”
Daniel 7:2
...The waters...are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues Revelation 17:15
The Sea

4. - The Great Controversy, p. 439
Winds are a symbol of strife. The four winds of heaven striving upon the great sea represent the terrible scenes of conquest and revolution by which kingdoms have attained to power.
- The Great Controversy, p. 439
And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships.
Daniel 11:40

5. The Winds of Strife Revelation 7
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
Education, p. 179:
“Angels are now restraining the winds of strife, that they may not blow until the world shall be warned of its coming doom; but a storm is gathering, ready to burst upon the earth; and when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture.”

6. came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
And four
great beasts
came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
Daniel 7:2
These great beasts, which are four,
are four kings,
which shall arise
out of the earth.
Daniel 7:17

7. The first was like a lion,
The 1st Beast:
The first was like a lion,
and had eagle's wings.
Daniel 7:4

8. The Lion was the Kingdom of Babylon
Jeremiah 4
7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
Jeremiah 50
17 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria has devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.
The Lion was the Kingdom of Babylon

9. Babylon

10. The Development of the Babylonian Empire
City-States of Sumeria
Kingdom of Akkad
Kingdom of Babylon
Kingdom of Assyria
New Babylonian Empire

11. Why does the Lion have Eagle's Wings?
Habbakuk 1
6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hastes to eat.

12. The eagle's wings represent the speed
with which the Babylonian empire spread.

13. I beheld till the wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
Daniel 7:4
Prophets and Kings, p. 521
The once proud monarch had become a humble child of God; the tyrannical, overbearing ruler, a wise and compassionate king. He who had defied and blasphemed the God of heaven, now acknowledged the power of the Most High and earnestly sought to promote the fear of Jehovah and the happiness of his subjects. Under the rebuke of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, Nebuchadnezzar had learned at last the lesson which all rulers need to learn–that true greatness consists in true goodness. He acknowledged Jehovah as the living God, saying,
“I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase.” (Daniel 4:37)
God's purpose that the greatest kingdom in the world should show forth His praise was now fulfilled. This public proclamation, in which Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the mercy and goodness and authority of God, was the last act of his life recorded in sacred history.