Breaking Beasts: Daniel 7:1-18 - Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
When I was in seminary, I had a part-time job working for the buildings and grounds crew. Most of my work was indoors. The bulk of the crew’s work, on the other hand, was mowing the sprawling 52-acre campus where the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg was fought.
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Most of the work was done using zero-turn riding mowers. But
if the grass was especially high or the soil especially muddy, you needed “The
Beast.” This was a big, rusty 1960’s-era Ford Tractor. Due to its age and
decades of use, it took a great deal of patience and finesse to get The Beast
running, and when it was running, it stunk of burnt gasoline and motor oil. But
The Beast had the power to get the big jobs done.
Click here to read the Scripture text
In today’s reading, Daniel dreams of four beasts
representing the ancient world’s most powerful empires. One by one, they emerge
from the sea until the next beast devours them. The first is like a lion and
had eagle’s wings. It represents the mighty Babylonian Empire which ruled the
world for 1-½ millennia until God humbled its king Nebuchadnezzar by afflicting
him with madness. He ate grass like a cow, and his hair grew long like the
feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird[1].
Soon, another beast emerges that was like a bear that was
raised up on one side. This beast represents the Medo-Persian empire, of which
the Persians were superior to the Medes. With the ravenous appetite of a bear,
it uses its three tusks to gore and devour three great empires: Lydia, Babylon,
and Egypt.
Just then, a third beast emerges that was speedy, like a
leopard. This represents Alexander the Great and his rapid conquests of the
world’s empires. Its four heads represent the four generals who take over the
empire after Alexander’s death.
Finally, a fourth beast emerges there is more powerful and
terrifying than any beast that preceded it. What its doesn’t devour with its
iron teeth it crushes with its feet. Its ten horns represent the totality of
its rule over the earth. An eleventh horn emerges with human eyes and a
boastful mouth. He is the antichrist: a false messiah with godlike power over people,
who proclaims an anti-gospel that glorifies violence and greed. This beast
represents Rome and its emperors who called themselves the sons of god.
By now, you probably understand why the Book of Daniel is
thought of as the most confusing and terrifying book of the Old Testament, just
as Revelation is the most confusing and terrifying book of the New Testament.
But what Daniel sees as gigantic monsters from the depths of
hell, others see as heroic and glorious. They see their power as divine. People
gladly worship the beasts as bringers of peace, power, and prosperity. They hang
on to every boastful word they speak. They believe every lie without question. They
even sacrifice their lives for them.
Only the righteous see them as the monsters they are—as do their
many, many victims.
In the Book of Daniel, we learn how God uses ordinary people
to take the beasts down. Beasts need people to worship them. Shadrach, Meshach,
Abed-Nego, and Daniel refuse. They look Nebuchadnezzar and Darius in the eye
and tell them, “You’re not God!” That is enough to break them. Then God takes
it one step further by delivering Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-Nego, and Daniel from
their fiery furnace and their lions’ den. Then they learn who God truly is. The
empires they build cannot endure because they are built on a foundation of
bloodshed and exploitation.
Just as Daniel foresees in his dream, their ultimate defeat
will come when God raises up one who is like a human being and gives him glory
and kingship. Unlike the beasts, who consume and devour, Jesus gives himself
away for the sake of the world.
This is a crucial truth for us to hold onto, living, as we
are, in a world that feels like it’s gone to the beasts.
Fear is what makes us all vulnerable to the beasts and their
smooth talk. We feel safe when they convince us that they are fighting for us. Who
wouldn’t want to have a beast fighting for them? But we trust God. And when we
follow the example of Jesus, we exercise a power that’s greater than any ruler
or empire.
Jesus conquered sin and death by dying on the cross and
rising from the dead. You make his victory complete when you forgive and seek
forgiveness; when you show mercy to those in need; when you give yourself to
those who cannot give back; when you love and pray for your enemies.
Beasts cannot endure peacemaking, forgiveness, justice,
charity. They cannot endure when you refuse to buy their merchandise and wear
their image on your clothing. And they especially cannot bear brave and
courageous individuals, like Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-Nego, and Daniel who dare
to hold them accountable.
We need to pray for the courage God gave to Shadrach,
Meshach, Abed-Nego, and Daniel, because standing against the beasts is both
costly and dangerous.
People who love the beasts will not love you for standing up
for justice, truth, or the neighbor. But Self-giving and self-sacrificing love
is what breaks the backs of the beasts, just as Jesus broke the backs of death
and the devil at the cross.
As long as you persevere in faith and we as a congregation
persevere in our calling to bear witness to Christ, the beasts cannot win. If
it comes to pass that you suffer the loss of your property, your reputation,
your relationships, or even your you, you will have gained the Kingdom of God. You
are mightier than every beast because God will be mighty in you.
Beasts will arise and terrorize for a time until another
beast devours them and takes over. “But the holy ones of the Most High shall
receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever—forever and ever.”
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