Daniel saw four great beasts come up from a churning sea. The second was “like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’” (Daniel 7:5, NKJV).
Is what we see the bear starting to rise on one side? A bear does not stop at what is already in its mouth. This week a former U.S. ambassador to NATO warned that Russia’s pressure on Europe has moved from the shadows into the open, and on the same night Russia sent one of its largest barrages of the war into Ukraine. The bear’s posture is worth watching to see if the vision is being fulfilled.
What happened this week
The warning. In Foreign Affairs on Oct. 7, Julianne Smith, U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2021 to 2024, argued that Russia’s “deniable campaign has become undeniable.” For years, she writes, sabotage in Europe stayed just below the line that would trigger a collective NATO response. Now, “in late July, a Russian cruise missile crashed into Polish territory. Days later, three explosive-laden drones were found at and near an airport in Leipzig, Germany.” Two weeks after that, Romanian F-16s scrambled to intercept Russian drones over Romanian airspace. In September, she writes, a Russian frigate off Denmark “fired two flares at a Danish military helicopter.”
The diagnosis. NATO tracks and investigates these incidents and sometimes intercepts them, Smith grants. “But a response built incident by incident is not deterrence, and Putin knows the difference. As long as each provocation costs Moscow nothing more than a downed drone, Putin has every reason to keep escalating.” She also faults mixed signals from Washington.
The remedy she proposes. Smith wants a clear warning from the United States and real costs. She points to France’s repeated boardings of sanctioned Russian tankers and Norway’s seizure of a Russian vessel as models, and names a crackdown on Russia’s shadow fleet, “the unmarked vessels Russia uses to bypass sanctions,” among the steps NATO has so far been unwilling to discuss (Foreign Affairs).
The same night in Ukraine. Overnight from Oct. 6 to 7, Russia launched a mass strike on Ukraine. Ukraine’s Air Force said it used 48 cruise missiles, ballistic and anti-ship missiles, and 130 attack and decoy drones, and that air defenses brought down 161 targets, with hits recorded at 18 locations (Ukrainska Pravda; Al Jazeera). President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired some 70 missiles in all (ABC News). At least 30 people were killed and at least 138 injured over the day, Ukrainian authorities said; 19 died when a cruise missile hit an apartment building in Pryluky, among them at least five children (Kyiv Independent). Russia’s Defense Ministry called it a “massive strike” on military-industrial sites (Al Jazeera).
The bear in Daniel 7
“And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’” (Daniel 7:5, NKJV)
Interpreters have long read Daniel’s four beasts as successive kingdoms, and many Christians have also wondered whether the images speak to the powers of the last days. Our earlier Double Take episode, Another Rib or Only a Scare?, asked whether Russia’s pressure on NATO’s border looked like the bear reaching for another rib.
Notice what the verse says. The bear is “raised up on one side,” leaning, poised. It already holds ribs in its mouth. And it is told to rise and devour more. The picture is of an appetite that is not satisfied by what it has taken.
Is the bear rising?
Is what we see the bear starting to rise on one side? A power is testing its neighbors’ resolve, one provocation at a time, while it pounds a country it has already invaded. Scripture teaches us to recognize the shape of such things without claiming to read a timetable. Jesus said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6, NKJV).
Policy questions, such as how NATO should respond, belong to statesmen, and Christians of good conscience will weigh them differently. Our task here is different: to see the times through the Word and to keep our hearts where they belong.
How then should we live?
First, watch. Jesus used the word two ways, and both apply here. Watch the news: “When you see these things happening, know that it is near—at the doors!” (Mark 13:29, NKJV). Keep an eye on the bear’s posture as the evidence comes in. Then watch for the King: “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42, NKJV). The first kind of watching is meant to lead to the second. The headlines turn our eyes upward: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1–2, NKJV).
Second, take heart. Daniel’s vision does not end with the bear. It ends with the throne of the Ancient of Days and “One like the Son of Man,” to whom was given “dominion and glory and a kingdom… His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13–14, NKJV). Beasts rise and fall. The kingdom is given “to the people, the saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7:27, NKJV).
“He makes wars cease to the end of the earth… Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations.” (Psalm 46:9–10, NKJV)
The bear may be told to rise. Christ already reigns. Watch, pray and rest in Him.
— Revelation Rosetta Stone Staff
Sources
- Foreign Affairs, Julianne Smith, “Russia’s Hybrid War Has Entered a Dangerous New Phase,” Oct. 7, 2026. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russia/russias-hybrid-war-has-entered-dangerous-new-phase
- Ukrainska Pravda, “Massive Russian attack on 7 October: 161 aerial assets brought down, hits at 18 locations,” Oct. 7, 2026 (citing Ukraine’s Air Force). https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/10/07/8056828/
- Al Jazeera, “At least 20 killed as Russia launches ‘massive’ attack on Ukraine,” Oct. 7, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/7/at-least-two-killed-in-kyiv-as-russia-launches-massive-attack-on-ukraine
- ABC News, “Russia hits Ukrainian apartment buildings in deadly overnight strike, Zelenskyy says,” Oct. 7, 2026. https://www-cdn.abcnews.com/International/russia-hits-ukrainian-apartment-buildings-deadly-overnight-strike/story?id=137058213
- The Kyiv Independent, “Russian attacks kill at least 28, injure more than 138 over past day, rescue efforts continue in Pryluky,” Oct. 7, 2026. https://kyivindependent.com/russian-attacks-kill-at-least-24-injure-more-than-130-over-past-day-rescue-efforts-continue-in-pryluky/
- Revelation Rosetta Stone, “Another Rib or Only a Scare? Russia, NATO’s Border, and Daniel 7,” Sept. 26, 2026. https://revelationrosettastone.blog/2026/09/26/another-rib-or-only-a-scare-russia-natos-border-and-daniel-7/
- Scripture: Daniel 7:2–5, 13–14, 27; Matthew 24:6, 42; Mark 13:29; Psalm 46:9–10; Psalm 121:1–2 (NKJV). https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel%207%3A2-5%2C13-14%2C27%3BMatthew%2024%3A6%2C42%3BMark%2013%3A29%3BPsalm%2046%3A9-10%3BPsalm%20121%3A1-2&version=NKJV