DANIEL 7
Read Daniel 7:1-28
This is a difficult chapter as the Book of Daniel, hard enough to understand at the best of times, goes all weird on us. The language is very reminiscent of Revelation with descriptions of strange beasts and warfare between good and evil. As with Revelation, it is probably best not to try and understand every detail and just try to get a general view of what the passage is saying to us.
We are told in verse 1 that this dream of Daniel’s took place in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar. In the chapter before last we read about the death of Belshazzar, and in Chapter 6 we saw Belshazzar’s successor, Darius, and the episode of Daniel in the Lions’ den. So the chapters of Daniel are not laid out in chronological order, and indeed much of the Bible is not necessarily in chronological order. The gospels for instance are like this in places because the intention is not to write a biography of Jesus but to bring out important points about his life and mission. In the last few chapters we have seen Daniel interpreting the dreams and visions of various kings of Babylon. Now we are seeing some of the dreams and visions that Daniel himself had.
And what a strange and frightening dream Daniel had. In his own words he was “troubled in spirit and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me” (v15). What the dream was about was a succession of peculiar beasts that were powerful and engaged in fighting. Thankfully Daniel received an interpretation of his strange dream which pointed towards a succession of four powerful kingdoms or empires that would dominate the earth. Many people have tried to identify what these kingdoms were in terms of human history: The Roman Empire, Hitler’s Third Reich and whatever. But that is not really the point. What the passage tells us is that there will always be human ambition to dominate by force of arms and power. But ultimately these kingdoms will not prevail because true power lies with God Almighty, here described in poetic terms as the Ancient of Days. And it is he who has the last word as the beast is slain and its body destroyed by fire (v11) and the other beasts stripped of their authority (v12). Human kingdoms may come and go, but the Kingdom of God is eternal.
From a New Testament perspective an interesting aspect is the figure described as the Son of Man coming into God’s presence and being given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed (vv13-14). That is surely a preview of Jesus, who used the term ‘Son of Man’ of himself, and who has been given all authority in heaven and earth by God the Father and who promises us an eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven with him.