How many of you have gone to a Hallowe'en party recently? I've been to some: harvest parties, and some Trunk or Treat gatherings. It always looks like people are having a terrific time. And there are always some great costumes, heroes and princesses and warriors and animals and people from other times.... But it occurred to me that it really would be kind of fun to have a “Bible-characters only” costume party some year. You’re not just stuck with people in robes and headdresses, either. There’s always Lazarus, if you’re into mummies, and angels and Roman soldiers and dancing girls and all kinds of animals and - well, the possibilities are endless. And if you’re like my oldest godson, who absolutely LOVES monsters, there’s always the four beasts in Daniel’s dream.
They sound just like the sort of monsters that crop up in nightmares after you’ve eaten too much Hallowe’en candy, don’t they?
"The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand upon two feet like a man; and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side; it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’" [v. 4-5]
I have this image of a glutton at an all-you-can-eat barbecued ribs feed.
The third was "like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back; and the beast had four heads; and dominion was given to it..... [and then there was] a fourth beast, terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns."
How would you like to have a dream full of creatures like that? I’d do my best to forget it as quickly as possible.
But Daniel didn’t do that. Daniel, whose faith was so strong that he went into the lion’s den rather than bow down to anyone but YHWH God; Daniel, whose wisdom was so great that King Nebuchadnezzar, the destroyer of Jerusalem, made him one of his top and most trusted officials; Daniel knew that dreams were important. So, in his dream, he asked one of the heavenly beings who was also there, in the dream, and asked what it all meant. And they told him. And he wrote it down. And now we have it.
And we still want to know what it means. Commentators and scholars have tried for centuries to explain the explanation. But it remains a mystery, with theory competing against theory and no way this side of Christ’s coming to tell who’s right. So I approach the text with some caution, and part of me would rather not deal with the subject at all. But this is what the lectionary gave us for today, and I made a commitment to myself at the beginning of the year not to duck a passage just because it was difficult. Because if Daniel thought it was important enough to write down, and God thought it was important enough to preserve for us in Scripture, then we need to spend some time with it.
Most scholars identify the four beasts with the four kings that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about in chapter 2, the dream that launched Daniel’s rise to fame and power. The most popular interpretation is that these kingdoms are Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Some scholars believe that the prophecies in Daniel were fulfilled with the coming of Christ; others believe that they foretell the second coming and look for clues to identify the beasts with contemporary powers.
All agree that the “Ancient of Days” is God the Father, and the “one like a son of man” is Jesus, “to [whom] was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
But what are we to make of the beasts?
And why do we care? If they are Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome, what relevance does it have for us now? And if not, isn’t it all just sheer speculation?
I believe that, like much of prophetic writing, that there is a near-term truth, an end-time truth, and an on-going set of principles. The near-term truth probably is the four popular candidates already mentioned. The end-time truth we won’t understand until we look back on it and see the pattern complete, and say, “Oh, yeah, now I get it.”
The on-going set of principles is a little more complicated. And it’s not the product of generations of renowned and godly scholars; it’s what I’ve come up with myself from wrestling with this passage over the past week. So it’s a little untested, something to think about and mull over.
My view is that the beasts - at least the first three - represent types of governments, rather than particular rulers. The first, the one like a lion with eagle’s wings, who lost his wings and was set upright and given a human mind, is a government which comes closest to God’s ideal. It is characterized by restrained power and rational behavior. The second, the greedy, devouring bear, is your typical brute dictatorship, unsubtle and limited in influence and scope. The third beast represents a more sophisticated kind of dictatorship, efficient and deadly but not taking delight in brutality for its own sake. The last beast may very well represent the kind of sprawling, malignant, corrupting totalitarianism that not only devours everything in its path but enlists its victims as collaborators in their own destruction. This would fit with how Rome was viewed by many of its enemies in the first century, and perhaps how communism was viewed in ours, and even how America is viewed in some Muslim countries.
And why is this any more relevant than end-time prophecy, or a historical perspective on the time leading up to Christ’s birth? Why do we need to take away any more from this passage than what Daniel tells us is the over-arching, final lesson, which is right there in verse 18: "...the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, for ever and ever." Why don’t we just leave it at that and get on with explaining what “saints” are and what “the kingdom” is, and forget about the beasts?
I think that the lesson is that all governments, good and bad alike, are earthly, not heavenly. These “kings” are temporary, not permanent. They are given authority which they may use well or badly, but it is a authority which will not last. Even the worst of all has only a temporary hold on its victims, and even the best will eventually come under the judgment of God.
In this country, because we have been so blessed, there has been a long tendency to identify America as “God’s country;" we think about it, I think, in much the same way that the shell-shocked exiles of Daniel’s day had once viewed Jerusalem. His prophecy comforted them, to know that even these seemingly all-powerful conquerors would, in their turn, be swept away. His prophecy warns us, on the other hand, against being too comfortable. Prophecy mavens spend enormous amounts of time looking at other countries, identifying first this dictator and then that one as the anti-Christ. Some may eventually even turn their eyes and their accusations on us, on this country. And they may eventually get it right. But the important lesson is not that there are evil governments who are enemies of God, or which is more evil than the other. The important lesson is that it is the saints who will inherit the true kingdom, the eternal kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
OK, that sounds good - I think. At least it’s good news for the saints. Who are they?
They are us. In the Old Testament the saints - the “hasidim” were Israel, God’s chosen ones. In the New Testament they are the church. “Saint” is the same thing as “holy ones,” and holy means, above all, dedicated to God. Saints are people set apart, set apart from the world’s use, reserved for God’s holy purposes. Saints are Christ-centered, not world-centered. Saints are different from the surrounding culture. Saints march to a different drummer, so to speak. People who belong to God would rather be saints than kings. Because the saints will last when the kings - the beasts - are gone.
But it’s hard to be brave when the monsters are out, isn’t it. One night when I came home from a police chaplain ride-along just before midnight, I ran into my downstairs neighbor. She’s an elderly widow, and she was heading for her car to go spend the weekend with her son. She was afraid to be alone.
Several years ago I had the privilege of hearing Marj Carpenter speak. She was the former moderator of our denomination who - almost single-handedly - turned the church’s attention back to mission. I’ve never heard a more moving and inspiring speaker. At one time she was, surprisingly, permitted to visit North Korea and attended worship in one of the two Christian churches which were then allowed to operate openly. The building was crammed to bursting and the overflow crowd filled the sidewalks and clustered around the windows. The question everyone wanted to ask was, “Is there still a church in the world?” You see, they have absolutely no contact with the outside world. They are starving, too, and lacked any of the things which you and I consider necessary for survival, let alone “the good life.” But all they wanted was to know they were not alone. “Is there still a church?”
Hallowe’en is All Hallows Eve, the night before All Saints Day. It’s the last chance for the demons - whether of self or of Satan - to strut their stuff before they go down before the Son of Man. They’re scary, but they’re not truly real. The monsters that walk on Hallowe’en night, who march through our candy-stuffed nightmares, who greedily demand tribute and vandalize unguarded homes and hearts and who - maybe - rule for a day and a night - fade when the Day comes: the day when all the saints, all those who belong to Christ, people of every tongue and tribe and nation, will be brought at last into the presence of the Ever-Living One.
Because there is still a church, and there will always be a church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
