Deeper Reflection
The great statue with four different metallic parts in Daniel 2 and the four great beasts in Daniel 7 carry the same symbolism of four kings and kingdoms, with Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon represented by the golden head (Dan 2:37-38) and the first lion-like beast (Dan 7:4).⁴⁸ In Daniel 7, the identity of the second and third beasts (Dan 7:5-6) is “less clear and actually does not matter much” and they “function to create space between” the present Babylonian Empire and the “more distant future” fourth beast.⁴⁹Various historical interpretations of the “fourth beast” and the “little horn” have been made. But there are several such interpretations that “suggests that it is right to see here not so much a single unique historical point of reference but a recurring pattern”⁵⁰ . In history, human empires rise and fall, overlapping each other, going to war with each other, and at different times “especially vicious regimes arise that seem to concentrate evil to its most potent virulence”⁵¹ . The “fourth beast” with its climactic “little horn” “represent such ultimate manifestations of evil, anti-God, anti-human forces that exude arrogance, breathe out violence, and wreak devastation and destruction on an enormous scale causing intense suffering to the people of God at such times.”⁵² The picture of the “fourth beast” and the “little horn” is a theological picture (rather than a historical one) and paradigm that “fits more than one regime or individual tyrant in the long history of Jews and Christians”⁵³ .It is wisdom to observe theologically and reflectively such recurring evil human powers in history, and be discipleship-ready for their new recurrence.

---

⁴⁸ Christopher J. H. Wright, 158 ⁴⁹ Christopher J. H. Wright, 158 ⁵⁰ Christopher J. H. Wright, 159; emphasis mine ⁵¹ Christopher J. H. Wright, 159 ⁵² Christopher J. H. Wright, 159-60 ⁵³ Christopher J. H. Wright, 160