In chapter 7 Daniel begins the second part of the book. He turns the clock back to the beginning of Belshazzar's reign. He could look back to the days of Nebuchadnezzar, when he had interpreted the King’s dreams about a giant statue (ch 2) and about a tree that was chopped down (ch 4). But now he is going through a time of obscurity; he is no longer at the heart of government. And before he interprets the writing on the wall for Belshazzar, and then works for Darius, he himself has at least two visionary dreams. In the first of these he sees four beasts emerging from a raging sea, and then he sees God himself, and “One like the Son of Man”; and in the vision has some of these images explained to him. They are about the world's empires and powers.
And although he was used to dealing in the supernatural – his life with God wasn't just about learning about but about encountering God – the vision shook him
The point
Kingdom, empires and other political powers, will rise and fall.
God knows their beginning. These beasts come from a churning sea (Verses 2, 3) and the interpretation (verse 17) says the kingdoms rise from the earth. They emerge within the created world. The Babylonians had long told a creation story, about the primeval sea, that churned up terrible monsters, and the gods slew the monsters; and the sea churned up another monster, and the gods killed it, and so it went on, forever... But Daniel knew the Genesis creation narrative: the earth that was chaotic, once for all tamed by the word of God. The spirit of God hovering over the face of the deep. Another prophet from the exile time, Ezekiel, wrote about the Spirit in Ezk 47. “Come from the four winds....”
And it is right that the evil empires of this world (and I don't believe there has been a really good empire yet!) emerge because we live in a fallen world. They are about the evil that is in every heart: greed, selfishness, indifference to the sufferings of others. The Times newspaper once invited readers to write in with their answers to the question, “What is wrong with the world” and later published letters under the same heading including the following: “Sir, I am – Yours faithfully, G K Chesterton”.
But it's wrong to think that the power-games that empires and nations play, are running out of control. When one stops, another one starts. They don't come from a source that is "Equal & Opposite" to God but from a source that is created but in rebellion. Despite the evil in the world, it is still God's world; the spirit of God still hovers.
He knows their middle. You can hear echoes of Nebuchadnezzar's experience (ch 4) in the description of the Lion with eagles wings – losing the wings, then eventually gaining the mind of a man. Then it seems as if the next beast, the bear, represents the Persian empire. The third, the leopard fits the Greek empire of Alexander the great, which spread with leopard-like speed. And the fourth – could well the the Roman empire and the Western cultures that follow on from it. How did Daniel know about the Greeks and the Romans? Well, unless the book wasn't written when it says it was written, he didn't specifically know about the Greeks and the Romans. But God showed him these things, and in v. 24 tells Daniel some details of the "fourth kingdom." So God knows all about the nature & actions of all kingdoms. He didn't need to read Machiavelli's "The prince", to know how powerful people and institutions think and behave.
And he knows their end. He knows where they are going. After seeing the four beasts, Daniel sees into God's heaven; he sees God enthroned in glory, worshipped by thousands; and “one like a Son of man” given glory and authority and Kingdom. He saw past the coming of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus (Verses 9-14) God's kingdom is going to come & is going to triumph! And verses 17f say, “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 for ever – yes, for ever and ever.” God's people you and I are to receive the Kingdom. How cool is that? God's kingdom is going to come & is going to triumph! The four beasts are no big deal.
The Problem
Initially Daniel was deeply troubled. (v. 27) and rightly so because the vision raises questions that should trouble us too. The problems with this chapter are at core moral problems. They are about the difference between right and wrong, and how we live our lives.
1. How specific is Daniels vision about our times? Does every detail refer to a specific event or person? And if it does, what difference does that make to how we live our lives today? For many Christians, puzzling out the meaning of the beasts leads to living disconnected to our world, just waiting for the Son of Man to come back, and ignoring the world we live in. But that wasn't Daniel's way; he remained deeply involved with the his own world, walking among its pagans and engaging in its politics.
2. Usually, our attempts to puzzle out Daniel 7 narrows our vision down to the Western world. But “four kingdoms” correspond to four winds and represent all kingdoms and empires. We can focus on the world of the Mediterranean, and North as far as Britain, West as far as America. But what about East and South? What about the Far East & Africa? I am not being frivolous. We betray our narrow self-centredness if we look at Daniel 7 and only see Western history: Britain, the USA, & the EU. The majority of the people in the world live in the East & the South.
3. Does God do right? If the four beasts – and all the empires and powers that have ever oppressed men and women, emerge from the sea of creation, why is that? We may wonder why a good God allows bad things to happen. Or we may think God isn't in control at all. The idea of a cold, calculating god who causes had things, and the idea of a world out of control, are both scary.
The Difference
Daniels vision shows us that although the world is in a mess and right now is not the way God planned it, there is a better world coming. God is good. God is still good. When people ask – and indeed when we ask ourselves – “Why does God allow suffering?” we know that there is this a terrible tension between the Spirit of God blowing like the wind, and the turbulent chaotic sea. So God is not the inventor of evil. There is a tension between human wrong-headedness and fallen-ness, divine love, and devilish opposition. And that tension is only broken when the “Son of Man” dies on a cross. It is in his death and resurrection that Jesus receives the Kingdom that will never be destroyed. The Lion who can open the book of the last times is Revelation a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain (Revelation 5. 6)
How was Daniel helped by knowing this stuff and how are we helped?
- We know what to expect of the powers. They always become subhuman, animal-like, and hungry!
- We know we can trust in our God's moral character.
- We know we can anticipate God's victory.
And that knowledge,release us to live as moral beings, transformed and transforming beings, in our broken world. That’s how Daniel lived, it is how Jesus lived,and it is how he calls us to live. We call it “the life of the Kingdom”. And the Son of Man's kingdom is one that will never be destroyed (v14) and “the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it for ever – yes, for ever and ever.” (v18)
© Gilmour Lilly October 2019
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