The "5th Beast" In Daniel Everyone Overlooks & Why It Matters

In this Radiating Faith sermon, I examine what I call “the beast outside the vision”—a startling connection between Daniel’s vision of four beasts and what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4. Although Scripture identifies only four beasts within Daniel’s vision, Nebuchadnezzar later experienced a real transformation that made him live and behave like an animal. His hair grew like eagle feathers, his nails resembled a bird’s claws, and his human reason was taken from him until he acknowledged the sovereignty of God. 

I compare Daniel 4 and Daniel 7 to explore why prideful rulers and violent kingdoms are represented as beasts. Humanity was created in the image of God, but oppression, greed, arrogance, and rebellion lead us away from the qualities we were created to reflect. Nebuchadnezzar possessed enormous power, prosperity, and influence, yet his pride caused him to take credit for what God had permitted him to build. The powerful king was consequently humbled until he understood who truly rules over the kingdoms of the earth. 

This message is not only a warning but it is also a story of mercy and restoration. God ordered the great tree representing Nebuchadnezzar to be cut down, but He preserved its stump and roots. Once Nebuchadnezzar looked toward heaven, acknowledged God’s authority, and regained his sanity, his kingdom was restored. The same God who humbles prideful people also offers restoration to those who repent and return to Him. 

I also consider what these passages mean for our personal conduct and modern governments. Are our decisions reflecting the image of God, or are pride, selfishness, power, and sin transforming us into something spiritually beastlike? This sermon challenges us to examine our lives, pray for our leaders, recognize the spiritual warfare surrounding earthly authority, and pursue the heart, mind, and character of Jesus Christ. 

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Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Radiating Faith, a ministry sub-series on the Couple of Nooks podcast. I'm super excited for today's sermon, which was very inspiring to me when, you know, it kind of came to me through the Spirit, because the Word is alive. And I say that because maybe some of y'all have never experienced this yet. I highly encourage everyone to pray for the Spirit and discernment when reading God's Word. Ask Him to reveal mysteries to you and to show you exactly what in the Word you need right now, whether you think you need it or not. And something jumped out of the text to me. I have read the Book of Daniel many times. Daniel is a blend of Aramaic and Hebrew writing. It is across a great span of time in the biblical history, and it's full of prophecies, fulfilled prophecies, and different predictions. Much of this historical account is actually debated due to literal versus symbolic, you know, translations and interpretations, but a lot of agreement on the fulfilled prophecies is just really powerful when you look at it. And so in this, there are a different number of dreams and visions. The famous ones, of course, being King Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue, which had the different kingdoms and a chronology stated there in a, you know, outline of the future that would be fulfilled, and then the four beasts, which we'll get into today as well, and then King Nebuchadnezzar's dream about the tree. Now, we're gonna be talking about what I call the beast that was not in the vision. We read of these four beasts, these Kaiju-like creatures, these monstrous creatures, that are so terrifying that when Daniel sees them in this vision in such a realistic way, he turns pale and is frightened and deeply troubled. Now, he's given a direct interpretation about what this means, and they represent four kingdoms, four kings that will rise up. One of those kings is most commonly referred to and associated with King Nebuchadnezzar. Now, when it comes to the beast outside the vision, we're gonna be focusing on King Nebuchadnezzar, not as depicted in the dream of the beast, but what actually happened to him in real life when he became a real beast, which we're gonna get into that today. We're gonna read that verbatim and then go over why it's so important for us. This is a sermon on beastfulness, on what happens when we're not aligned with God, when we go astray, what we become, and the importance of the difference between animals and human beings. This is gonna be powerful. Like I said, I've read Daniel many times, and this was the first time that Nebuchadnezzar's condition that he undergoes for a while really jumped out at me. So that being said, let's go ahead and start by reading from Daniel chapter 7. This is gonna be verbatim. This is coming from the New International Version of the Bible, and this is Daniel chapter 7. This is the dream of the four beasts, and we'll get into it right now. I wanna read it verbatim, and then we'll discuss it. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. Daniel said, "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the Great Sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea. The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it. And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, 'Get up and eat your fill of flesh.' After that I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule. After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast- terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had 10 horns. While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully. As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time. In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and people of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. The interpretation of the dream. I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. I approached one of those standing there and asked him the meaning of all this. So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things. The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever. Yes, forever and ever. Then I wanted to know the meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws, the beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell, the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them, until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom. He gave me this explanation: "The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The ten horns are the ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and a half-time. But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him. This is the end of the matter." I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale. But I kept the matter to myself And, uh, you know, my face would be pale too if I saw something like that, you know, these Kaiju-like creatures up close and personally the way that he saw it in this vision. Now, I mentioned earlier a bit of controversy, and that goes specifically with the literal interpretation of time or the more symbolic interpretations of time, right? So there's different conflicts and arguments about the timelines proposed in Daniel and the fulfillment of those kingdoms. Now, we do know that the four beasts represent four kingdoms specifically. It said so right here, right? Daniel was given the interpretation directly, and we see that the four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth, with the exception of the fourth beast being multiple kings and kingdoms. Now, I wanna mention as well the statue that Nebuchadnezzar dreams of is often associated as the same chronology and correlation just with different symbology. So we're not gonna go over that today because the focus of the sermon is on beastfulness, and so I don't wanna, you know, bombard you with too much side information. But if you have time on your own to research the kingdoms represented in the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel, then I definitely encourage you all to read that as well Now that we've gone over all that, and we'll get into more detail about it, I wanna get specifically into Daniel chapter 4. Or to backtrack just a little bit to give a little information about the beast. You know, there are different factors of it that are symbolized, right? So many people accredit the asymmetricalness of the bear, which is quoted as raised up on one of its sides, as a divided kingdom, as a mixed kingdom where one is stronger than the other. Also, you see the three ribs in his mouth. A lot of people say that represents the three conquests of that kingdom, but there's debate over that as well as what those three conquests are. Again, a lot of Daniel is debated, though it's undoubtedly true that most of the prophecies were fulfilled. Some of them, again, the times are debated on whether those have been fulfilled, are being fulfilled, or will be fulfilled based off what interpretation of time you look at. And again, Daniel is in the same boat as Revelation when it comes to literal, symbolic, apocalyptic, or real. And that's a, that's one of the biggest controversies of the whole faith across all the domina- denominations is what is symbolic versus literal. And it's a conversation that we've had for years and will continue to have for years until the end of time when Yeshua returns. Now, the first beast is often accredited to be King Nebuchadnezzar, and we're gonna get into not just this description of him, but also what we are given in Daniel chapter 4. So going to Daniel chapter 4, we see that, you know, King Nebuchadnezzar gets so powerful, right? People are praising him instead of God, right? And he is not always crediting God. Now, he has Daniel, of course, interpret a dream And this particular one is about a tree. Now I'll read. "These are the visions I saw while lying in bed. I looked and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The tree grew large and strong, and its top touched the sky. It was visible to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all. Under it, the wild animals found shelter, and the birds lived in its branches. From it, every creature was fed. In the visions I saw while lying in bed, I looked and there before me was a holy one, a messenger, coming down from heaven. He called in a loud voice, 'Cut down the tree and trim off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But let the stump and its roots, bound with iron and bronze, remain in the ground and the grass of the field. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him live with the animals among the plants of the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a man, and let him be given the mind of an animal till seven times pass by for him.' The decision is announced by messengers. The holy ones declare the verdict so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of people." Now, Daniel interpreted the dream, and, you know, he was even afraid, right? Because he knew what it meant. And he says, "My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries. The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth, with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the wild animals, and having nesting places in its branches for the birds. Your Majesty, you are that tree. You have become great and strong. Your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to distant parts of the earth." Now, fast-forward, right? This is the interpretation. "You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like the ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth, and gives them to anyone that He wishes. The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots mean that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that heaven rules. Therefore, Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice. Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be then that your prosperity will continue." The dream is fulfilled. All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar 12 months later as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. He said, "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?" Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven, "This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar. Your royal authority has been taken from you. You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like the ox. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth, and gives them to anyone he wishes." Immediately, what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was filled, fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle, and his nails like the claws of a bird. At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the p- people of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him, "What have you done?" At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisors and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and become, and became even greater than before. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exal- awe and glorify the King of Heaven because everything He does is right and all His ways are just, and those who walk in pride He is able to humble. Now let's look at a few things. To quote exactly, "His hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird." And we know that lions typically represented kingdom and power and authority. What do we see here w- when we read Daniel chapter 7, the first beast? "The first was like a lion and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being and the mind of a human was given to it." Now we see in Daniel 7 the restoration, the transformation of this beast, which has many features similar to King Nebuchadnezzar, into a human. What do we see with King Nebuchadnezzar's exile of animalness? He is restored. So a lot of people credit, you know, this first beast to being King Nebuchadnezzar. Whether that kingdom and beast is him or not isn't necessarily important to what I wanna focus on today. It is important overall, but here's what I wanna focus on. Nebuchadnezzar and these kingdoms are represented by beasts. They're represented by animals. Why? This is so vital. I want y'all to hear this right now. God made us in his image separate from the animals, right? There's a special uniqueness about the way we are designed compared to animals. That's not to diminish the value of animals, but to properly understand where we stand when it comes to God. Now what does God say, right? God looks at us differently than the animals, right? We know that God provides for the birds and, and creates beautiful flowers, right? We hear that when Yeshua is reassuring us. So how much more does he take care of us? When we go astray majorly in the deep sin of oppression, of power, of greed, of all this pride, we see that God sees these kings and these kingdoms as animals. He no longer sees himself reflected in them The transition from human to beast isn't just about a vision or symbology, it is spiritual. This is so important, y'all. King Nebuchadnezzar is the real beast, the beast that existed outside of that vision of the four beasts, right? In actual history, it is written that it is fulfilled that he went and ate grass, that he was covered with morning dew, that he had nails like a bird's claws and hair like the feathers of an eagle. This man became like an animal, a savage beast But this is a message of hope too, as much as it is a warning. We see the restoration of King Nebuchadnezzar even greater than he was before. Now, this, this isn't saying, "Go be led astray, become an animal, come back, you'll be a better human being." S- right? That's like saying, "Let's sin more so grace abounds more." No, that's not what we're saying. But this is so important. God looks at us and sees himself, right? And, and sin separates us from God. W- when did God not ... W- when was God not able to look at Yeshua? That moment on the cross when there was separation between Father and Son because Yeshua was taking all the sins of our world and became the embodiment of that sin, and God could not look at it. That's not to say any sin we do makes us unlookable to God. But the more we sin, continue to sin, and when we ultimately, especially when we are leaders running entire nations, God sees us as animals, right? Because we're not reflecting and living the properties of life that make us in his image, right? Being in his image isn't just a physical thing. It is a deeply spiritual thing. Not even the angels and those higher beings that, that serve God are made in his image. It is a spiritual thing as much as physical. And so I think it's really important, right? And I, I, I think that it's just so amazing. Both the narrative and apocalyptic literature work together to communicate the sovereignty of God over earthly rulers and kingdoms, right? God had the final say over Nebuchadnezzar's condition, right? He restored him. He gave him the mind of a human back, right? And then blessed him abundantly when he acknowledged God. Now, King Nebuchadnezzar could have done that from the beginning. Daniel tried to warn him, right? But how many of us have ignored the Daniels in our lives and we're living like an animal right now? And maybe it's not we're at physically outside eating grass- But what are we doing? How are we behaving? How are we treating others? And let's fast-forward to the four kingdoms, right? The vision of the four kingdoms, what do we see God rules over all of them, right? In the end, the Ancient of Days, as they reference here, the one like a son of man, AKA Yeshua, Jesus Christ, right? We see that they have ultimate authority over what these kingdoms get to do and decide. Not in the sense that they control free will and there is no free will. I mean, they decide their fate in the end, right? God rules over all these kingdoms. And I just did a whole sermon on Godzilla, the Leviathan, and why our fascination with powerful creatures matters. Why is the Leviathan even in the Bible? And to clarify, Godzilla's not in the Bible. But why the Leviathan, which is this Kaiju-like deep sea monster described in the Bible beautifully As something so calamitous that no human could ever prevail against it, that God so easily crushes the heads of Leviathan and feeds them as food to animals in the desert, right? That sermon, I'm gonna interconnect it here. There is nothing more powerful than God. None of these wild beasts, whether they're real calamitous natural beings that He created, whether they're the representations of the evilness of humanity manifested as a kingdom or a king. And so this is so important. And King Nebuchadnezzar becoming an animal. One thing I wanna mention, y'all pay attention to this real close, right? God didn't have to turn King Nebuchadnezzar into an animal-like creature. He could have killed Nebuchadnezzar with lightning. He could have given him leprosy. He could have had another nation come in and chop his head off. We have seen God handle rulers in many different ways in the Bible when they're unrepentant or they're blasphemous or they are evil. So why turn Nebuchadnezzar into an animal? Why didn't He do that to Jezebel or Ahab, right? This is included in the Bible for a reason. This isn't an accidental detail or a random event. This was done specifically with Nebuchadnezzar in partnership with the writing of Daniel chapter 7 and the vision to compound the message of what we look like spiritually to God when we are going astray, not aligned with Him, and when we are leading wickedly. He wanted us to know that we don't even look human anymore when we act so viciously like these animals. But look at the four beasts. What are they doing? They're not going to nonprofits and helping one another out. They are vicious beings killing and trampling, and they're monstrous, right? That's what God is seeing when He looks at us. Yes, He still sees my beloved child in whom I am well pleased. Don't get this wrong. Don't twist this up. But this is so important to know that we stray further and further away from Him and from the image that we're supposed to reflect Right? This is so important. These animal-like characteristics and dehumanization of earthly rulers and kingdoms, they reject God's authority King Nebuchadnezzar, it's a story also of humiliation but of restoration Right? And then we see the same thing with the earthly kingdoms where we see the crushing of them, right? Proper human rule is restored through submission to God's sovereignty and ultimately established through the everlasting kingdom given to the one like a son of man when we look at the ends of times. King Nebuchadnezzar is looking at a individual, the four beasts look at kingdoms. Both of them are so important. And when it comes to our kingdoms, our modern-day countries, right, what can we do? Pray for our leaders. We are called to pray for them. We are called to pray for these people, whether we voted for them or not, whether we like them or not. There are spiritual battles going on behind every politician, behind every political organization, behind every government. In Daniel in specific, we have that, where the Prince of Persia and the archangel are battling. There is spiritual warfare going on, and we need to pray for our leaders because they are being influenced by demonic spirits to bring these nations to ruin. They are becoming like the beasts, right? And we need to pray for that restoration of human mind that they would submit to God's sovereignty before being corrupt by the power of the government, whatever country you are in right now. And so I think that's really important, and I, I just wanna emphasize that, right? And, and we see King Nebuchadnezzar was represented by something beautiful at first, right? In, in, in the second vision of the tree. Beauty, abundance, fruit, right? Something that provided life. But when it became so self-centered, it had to be cut down. But God cut it down with a plan of restoration, right? He didn't have to say leave the stump, but he did. And that's mercy right there. Mercy that Nebuchadnezzar didn't deserve or need. Mercy that we, you and I right now, don't deserve or, or, or haven't earned, right? But it's because of God's love and beauty and design that we are able to be restored And so want y'all to pay attention to this, right? We gotta acknowledge God's authority, then reason and restoration will happen An animal-like existence. I mean, it's just the truth of it, and you can think right now of some sins that are more animalistic than others, but it doesn't matter, again, what the sin looks like externally. It's what does it make us look like spiritually? And we see right here that these sins make us look like these beasts, not just regular animals. These are hybrids. These are monsters. These are horrible beings. These are d- almost, almost like demonic images. And so I really encourage everyone to think about if God was looking at you right now, yes, he sees his child in whom he is well pleased, but what if that aside, he was looking at your actions, he was looking at your humility or your pride or your greed or your power, your selfishness or your selflessness, right? Does he see his own image reflected, or does he see a beast that needs restoration or to be cut down? I think this is really important. I want everyone to reflect on this. A warning, but again, a message of hope. There is restoration. Nebuchadnezzar was restored. He repented. He acknowledged God. So I just wanna pray for everyone right now to do so as well. Let us all be human beings with the mind of a human and the heart of a human and a spirit that pursues Yeshua. Amen.