Daniel 7: Order of events Part 1: Four Beast Kingdoms:
Daniel had a dream, a night vision in the first year of Belshazzar. Belshazzar was regent king who ruled in place of his Father, King Nabonidus who ruled the Babylon kingdom from: 556-539 B.C.. King Nabonidus spent most of his time traveling to Arabia to worship the crescent moon god, whose origins can be traced to the ancient city of UR. He spent more time in Arabia, then he did in Babylon worshiping Marduk, the god of Babylon.
As Daniel's night vision unfolds, he sees four winds of heaven stir the great sea with such force, that four beast rose from the churning depths. Beast is translated from the Aramaic חֵיוְתָא which means - animal. An animal can be a beast of the field such as oxen: Daniel 4.32 or, a beast that prowls the wilderness in search of prey, a lion, bear, leopard or, beast of ten horns: Daniel 7. Daniel tells us that each beast represents a kingdom.
The four beast are four kingdoms which parallel four metals in Nebuchadnezzars dream image; gold, silver, brass and iron mixed with shard clay. Three kingdoms ruled the middle east with kings who lived in Babylon. The Chaldeans ruled the middle east from Babylon, King Darius took the kingdom on the night of the writing on the wall: Daniel 5; 5:31; 6:28, and Alexander the Great ruled the middle east from his home-base in Babylon, where he later died. Alexander was the last ruling king connected to the dream image, which reflects the historical timeline of the Babylon kingdom. Three kings have come and gone... the fourth kingdom provides the final king.
