In this 34th week of Ordinary Time, in the shadow of the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe, we have been reading from the Book of Daniel, a book used in conjunction with Revelation to conjure predictions of the end of the world… depending on whether you are post-millennial, pre-millennial, or amillennial…but then that is a topic for another post.

In the first reading today we hear one of Daniel’s visions in which four beasts are stirred up from the “great sea.” There is no shortage of commentaries which offer detailed analysis of the meaning of the four beasts, each of which is presented in symbolic detail. The first three beasts have attributes of known predators but the fourth is worse than the first three and seemingly possesses power beyond that previously known – all of them arise from the “great sea.” This does not rule out specific identification with world powers of different ages, e.g. Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, but as easily seen the list is easily greater than four. Rather than seeking specific identification, it is perhaps best to link the four beasts with a preceding phrase “four winds,” generally indicating the whole of the earth. It seems more likely that the four beasts are meant to represent all possible world-dominating power in and across the history of mankind just as four winds represent all possible directions. Such are the comings and goings of the kings, queens, potentates, and power-brokers of each age; they come and go like the wind.

Yet they arise from the great sea. To the Hebrews the sea was both dangerous and mysterious, a restless element (Isa. 57:20) but not beyond the Lord’s power to tame (Ps. 107:23–29). In Hebrew the “great sea” can mean an ocean, but it also more commonly is used to mean the nether regions, underworld, a place of chaos, monsters, and mystery. In the Book of Job it is the home of the great monsters Leviathan and Behemoth.  So, the four beasts are arising from that source of chaos.

If you read closely you’ll note that the terrifying fourth beast is “thrown into the fire to be burnt up” when the “Ancient One” takes the throne. But interestingly, “The other beasts, which also lost their dominion, were granted a prolongation of life for a time and a season.”  It is at this point we read:

One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed (Dan 7:13-14)

This scene is well known in story, art and more. But does it mean that even as “one like a son of man” takes up the “everlasting dominion” that the other three beasts are still on the earthly scene? I’d suggest that it indeed does mean exactly that. Jesus is very clear in the gospels that the Kingdom of God is already at hand: “For behold, the kingdom of God is among you.” (Luke 17:21). The “everlasting dominion” had begun but was not fully implemented, leaving room for the chaos of the three beasts, and the free will choice of those that would follow a power that will endure only for “a time and a season.”

When you see suffering and evil in the world, trust that the Kingdom of God has already started. Trust that it will be everlasting and its dominion complete. Know that unlike earthly kingdoms that are imposed, the Kingdom of God will only be proposed. Even when you have given your whole and complete self to the Lord, there are still three beasts sowing the seeds of chaos from the “great sea.”

Image credit: Pexels