Context No. 798 of 4322 · Daniel (Greek)
Context · Reflection
Daniel (Greek) 7:23-28: in context
23“So he said, ‘The fourth animal will be a fourth kingdom on earth, which will be different from all the kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth, and will tread it down, and break it in pieces. 24As for the ten horns, ten kings will arise out of this kingdom. Another will arise after them; and he will be different from the former, and he will put down three kings. 25He will speak words against the Most High, and will wear out the saints of the Most High. He will plan to change the times and the law; and they will be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time. 26“‘But the judgment will be set, and they will take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it to the end. 27The kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole sky, will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions will serve and obey him.’ 28“Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts troubled me greatly, and my face was changed in me; but I kept the matter in my heart.”
Daniel has seen his terrifying vision of the fourth beast and its boastful little horn, and now an angel explains it to him. The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will devour the earth; the horn is a king who will speak against the Most High and wear out his holy ones, and even try to change the sacred times and the law. It is a bleak forecast: a power that oppresses God's people and seems, for a stretch, to be winning, grinding the saints down. But listen to the precise words the angel uses for how long. They will be given into his hand until a time, and times, and half a time.
That odd phrase is the mercy hidden in the sentence. The oppression is real, and it wears the saints down, but it is not open-ended. It has a limit, a fixed and appointed span, and then, the angel says, the court will sit, and his dominion will be taken away and destroyed forever, and the kingdom will be handed to the people of the Most High, whose reign will never end. Evil here is on a clock. It gets a set time, no more, and the outcome past that time is already settled. And yet the passage ends with Daniel's own honesty: even knowing all this, even shown the good end, my thoughts greatly troubled me, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter in my heart. Knowing how it ends did not spare him the distress of the middle. It only gave him something to hold onto in it.
The oppression Daniel saw was real and wearing, but it was given a fixed and limited time. When something feels like it will grind me down forever, can I trust that it is actually on a clock, with an end already decided?
Sources
- Daniel 7:9-14: the court sitting and the Son of Man given everlasting dominion, from the vision itself
- Revelation 13:5-7: the beast given authority for a limited season, wearing out the saints
- Revelation 11:15: the kingdom of the world become the kingdom of our Lord