URC Daily Devotion 5 September 2024

Daniel 8: 1 – 14

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me at first.  In the vision I was looking and saw myself in Susa the capital, in the province of Elam, and I was by the river Ulai. I looked up and saw a ram standing beside the river.  It had two horns. Both horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one came up second.  I saw the ram charging westwards and northwards and southwards. All beasts were powerless to withstand it, and no one could rescue from its power; it did as it pleased and became strong.

As I was watching, a male goat appeared from the west, coming across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground. The goat had a horn between its eyes.  It came towards the ram with the two horns that I had seen standing beside the river,[e] and it ran at it with savage force.  I saw it approaching the ram. It was enraged against it and struck the ram, breaking its two horns. The ram did not have power to withstand it; it threw the ram down to the ground and trampled upon it, and there was no one who could rescue the ram from its power.  Then the male goat grew exceedingly great; but at the height of its power, the great horn was broken, and in its place there came up four prominent horns towards the four winds of heaven.

Out of one of them came another  horn, a little one, which grew exceedingly great towards the south, towards the east, and towards the beautiful land.  It grew as high as the host of heaven. It threw down to the earth some of the host and some of the stars, and trampled on them.  Even against the prince of the host it acted arrogantly; it took the regular burnt-offering away from him and overthrew the place of his sanctuary.  Because of wickedness, the host was given over to it together with the regular burnt-offering;  it cast truth to the ground, and kept prospering in what it did.  Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one that spoke, ‘For how long is this vision concerning the regular burnt-offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled?’  And he answered him, ‘For two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.’

Reflection

Whatever else you might say about Daniel you cannot but admire his graphic description of his vision. Weird as the result may be you will easily have a picture of what he describes. There is an urgency about the narrative where everything is larger than life. The ram enraged, the goat moving with savage force, the new horn growing exceedingly great. From time to time there are little glimmers of hope that all the horror may stop. When four new horns grow and there is that little horn which points towards a beautiful land. Could this be the start of a journey to something more peaceful?

No, is the answer for it is not long before the goat was throwing down the host and some of the stars and trampling on them.

But what can we 21st Century Christians take from this vision? As I read the verses my mind, probably inevitably, turned to the two places in the world which most seem to mirror the descriptions in this vision. The  terror and the misery of those caught up in conflicts, in Israel/Palestine and in Ukraine. The inability of anyone to stop the violence and injustice are all mirrored in this vision from Daniel.

It is so easy to translate this vision into today’s conflicts but to be left no more hopeful about the future than when we began.

Daniel wrote for his time and was seen as someone whose major purpose was to offer hope and encouragement to Jews being persecuted. There is no support for armed resistance, he advocates acceptance and trust. Trust that knowledge and power lie with God alone.

Prayer

Life giving Son,
we pray for everyone caught up in conflict
and imagine that they would want us to pray for peace.
Guiding Spirit,
we pray for the wisdom to follow your leading
the patience to trust even when it is hard
the faith to believe that the sanctuary will be
‘restored to its rightful state’.
Amen