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Context No. 793 of 4322 · Daniel (Greek)

Context · Reflection

Daniel (Greek) 7:6-10: in context

6“After this I saw, and behold, another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The animal also had four heads; and dominion was given to it. 7“After this I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there was a fourth animal, awesome and powerful, and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth. It devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet. It was different from all the animals that were before it. It had ten horns. 8“I considered the horns, and behold, another horn came up among them, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots: and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. 9“I watched until thrones were placed, and one who was Ancient of Days sat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, and its wheels burning fire. 10A fiery stream issued and came out from before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgment was set. The books were opened.

Daniel's night vision parades a series of beasts up out of a churning sea, each one a brutal empire. Here comes the third, a leopard with four wings and four heads, and then the fourth, which Daniel can hardly describe: terrifying and dreadful, with great iron teeth, devouring and trampling whatever is left, and bristling with ten horns. Among them a little horn pushes up, with human eyes and a mouth speaking great things, boasting, arrogant, uprooting the horns around it. It is the loudest thing in the vision, a mouth that will not stop talking big.

And then, without warning, the view pulls all the way back, and the beasts and the boasting horn shrink to their true size. Thrones are set in place, and the Ancient of Days takes his seat. His clothing is white as snow, his hair like pure wool, his throne a blaze of fire with a river of flame pouring out from it; thousands upon thousands serve him, ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him. And then the quiet, decisive line: the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. The great boasting mouth is not answered by a louder mouth. It is answered by a throne. Above every terrifying power and every arrogant voice, one who is older than all of them sits down, opens the record, and begins to judge. The beasts rage across the earth, and the outcome is already being settled in a courtroom they cannot see.

Above the beasts and the boasting horn, the Ancient of Days simply took his seat and opened the books. What loud, dominating voice fills my view, and have I lost sight of the throne that sits, unhurried, above it?

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