Daniel 7:11-12

‘I was beholding then (what would result) from the voice of the great words which the horn spoke, I beheld even until the beast was slain, and his body was destroyed, and he was given to be burned with fire. And as for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away. Yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.'

These two verses warn us against assuming that in the vision one thing just follows after another. It is a summary of what happens, and what has happened previously, without regard for chronology. It starts at the end and backtracks. It is a dream. Firstly he declares what will be the effect of God's activity through the court because of the great words spoken by the horn (the small one), what will result from his words. Its result will be that the beast on which it grew will be slain. Its body will be destroyed, it will be handed over to the fire, just as had happened to God's people in chapter 3. God's people had been accused of blasphemy and handed over to the fire. So will it be done to the great and terrible beast because of the blasphemy of the little horn. The fires of God (Daniel 7:10) will destroy it.

But then Daniel 7:12 deals with previous judgments of the court, God's activity on the other three beasts as He observed them through the centuries. One by one their dominion had been taken away from them by sentence of the court, but they had been allowed to go on as parts of other empires until the final end of the fourth beast. Their lives had been preserved ‘for a season and a time', that is, for God's determined period.

To be consistent with chapter 2, where all are destroyed together, this must refer back to the times when each one was replaced, but was allowed to continue, although without having the dominion, until the destruction of the fourth beast, when they too will be destroyed. But there will be no amelioration or delay in respect of the fourth beast. Its destruction will be total and complete, and at that time all empire will be destroyed. So the scene in heaven above refers to a continual judgment scene which monitors activities on earth and deals with them as they arise.