Daniel (Greek) 11:14-19: a reflection

14“In those times many will stand up against the king of the south. Also the children of the violent among your people will lift themselves up to establish the vision; but they will fall. 15So the king of the north will come and cast up a mound, and take a well-fortified city. The forces of the south won’t stand, neither will his chosen people, neither will there be any strength to stand. 16But he who comes against him will do according to his own will, and no one will stand before him. He will stand in the glorious land, and destruction will be in his hand. 17He will set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and with him equitable conditions. He will perform them. He will give him the daughter of women to corrupt her; but she will not stand, and won’t be for him. 18After this he will turn his face to the islands, and will take many; but a prince will cause the reproach offered by him to cease. Yes, moreover, he will cause his reproach to turn on him. 19Then he will turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land; but he will stumble and fall, and won’t be found.

This is dense prophecy, a dizzying account of kings of the north and south rising, warring, conquering, and falling, one after another. It is hard to follow the details, and we need not trace them all. But step back and notice the overall shape, because the shape is the message. King after king comes on the scene, some of them able to do as they please, with no one able to stand before them, and then, without exception, they stumble and fall and are not found.

Notice that pattern repeating: even the ruler who seems invincible, who does according to his own will and whom no one can resist, comes in the end to the same place, he stumbles, he falls, he is no longer found. The dominant power of an age, the one that looked unstoppable in its day, turns out to be one more name in a long procession of rulers who rose, strutted their hour, and vanished.

There is perspective in that for how we regard the powers of our own time, the figures who seem to dominate the stage, who appear to do as they wish with no one able to check them. Daniel's long view says: they too will stumble and fall and be forgotten, like all the others before them. History is a procession of kings passing off the stage, and above it all is the God who outlasts every one of them and holds the whole story. Do not be overawed by the powers that loom large today. They will pass; God remains.

Lord, history is a procession of kings who rise, strut their hour, and stumble and fall, and above it all you remain. When the powers of my own time loom large and seem unstoppable, give me Daniel's long view: they too will pass, while you outlast them all and hold the whole story. Keep me from being overawed by what will not last.