Deeper Reflection
When Daniel dreamed of the visions, he could not understand their meaning, as he needed a divine being to make known to him the interpretation (Dan 7:15-16). But even before Daniel received the interpretation, his mind went back to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream almost fifty years ago (Dan 2).⁶ “Perhaps Daniel was now reflecting on that statue with its four metallic empires succeeding one another” and discerned a connection with his visions of four beasts: “The pattern of four repeats itself.”⁷ In the Bible, repeated literary patterns are a divine pattern that shows a theology: God is in sovereign control. God does use discernible patterns in directing our lives as we walk with Him faithfully. Daniel was reflecting on the current geopolitical scene with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan 2) and his visions (Dan 7) in mind: “The Babylonian Empire was clearly drifting to its extinction, what was to follow?”⁸ The great statue of four kingdoms, representing superpowers in world history, does not show any evil as do the four kingdoms represented by the four beasts. Daniel was “a man close to the heart of the imperial government of Babylon”, and he “doubtless had profound insight at a purely human and political level into the likely international outcomes if Babylon fell. He is not likely to have been lounging on a bed of illusions and false optimism. On the contrary, it may have been a well-warranted fear of the longer future that prepared his mind for the visions that he now begins to recount [in Dan 7].”⁹ That frightening “longer future” is a world ruled by beastly leaders that devour people.

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⁶ Christopher J. H. Wright, 152 ⁷ Christopher J. H. Wright, 152 ⁸ Christopher J. H. Wright, 152 ⁹ Christopher J. H. Wright, 151