Daniel (Greek) 7:1-5: a reflection

1In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head on his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters. 2Daniel spoke and said, “I saw in my vision by night and behold, the four winds of the sky broke out on the great sea. 3Four great animals came up from the sea, different from one another. 4“The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand on two feet as a man. A man’s heart was given to it. 5“Behold, there was another animal, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth. They said this to it: ‘Arise! Devour much flesh!’

Daniel's vision begins with a scene of chaos: the four winds of heaven stirring up a great sea, and out of the churning waters four great beasts rising, each different, strange and monstrous, representing the great empires that would rise and fall through history. It is a turbulent, unsettling vision, a picture of history as a churning sea from which monstrous powers emerge. And yet the very fact that God shows it to Daniel in advance, and that Daniel writes down the sum of the matter, carries a quiet reassurance: God oversees the whole turbulent sweep of history.

Notice both the turbulence and the oversight. The vision does not pretend that history is calm and orderly; it shows a churning sea and rising beasts, the tumult of empires, the frightening flux of the ages. But God is the one showing Daniel this, revealing the sweep of history in advance, giving him the sum of it. The chaos is real, but it is not outside God's knowledge; he sees the whole, from beginning to end, and reveals it to his servant.

That perspective steadies us as we watch the turbulence of our own times. History can look like a churning sea, powers rising and falling, tumult and chaos, monstrous forces emerging, nothing stable. But the God who showed Daniel the whole sweep of it in advance oversees history still; the chaos is not outside his knowledge or his purpose. When the flux of the world frightens you, take the long view that Daniel's vision offers: behind the churning sea and the rising beasts, God oversees the whole, and he holds the end as surely as the beginning. The turbulence is real, but so is the God who sees it all and rules over it.

Lord, Daniel saw history as a churning sea with monstrous powers rising from it, the tumult of empires, the frightening flux of the ages, and yet you were the one showing him the whole sweep of it in advance, giving him the sum of the matter. When the turbulence of my own times frightens me, when history looks like a churning sea of powers rising and falling with nothing stable, steady me with that perspective. The chaos is real, but it is not outside your knowledge or your purpose; you oversee the whole, and you hold the end as surely as the beginning. Help me take the long view, trusting that behind the churning sea and the rising beasts, you see it all and rule over it. Give me peace amid the flux, in the God who oversees all history.