When Our Stories Become Iron-Teethed Monsters

a sermon on Daniel’s nightmare in Daniel 7

In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in bed. Then he wrote down the dream: I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then, as I watched, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a human being, and a human mind was given to it. Another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, had three tusks in its mouth among its teeth, and was told, “Arise, devour many bodies!” After this, as I watched, another appeared, like a leopard. The beast had four wings of a bird on its back and four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the visions by night a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth and was devouring, breaking in pieces, and stamping what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that preceded it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns when another horn appeared, a little one that came up among them. Three of the original horns were plucked up from before it. There were eyes like human eyes in this horn and a mouth speaking arrogantly.

As I watched,
thrones were set in place,
and an Ancient One took his throne;
his clothing was white as snow
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames,
and its wheels were burning fire.
A stream of fire issued
and flowed out from his presence.
A thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him.
The court sat in judgment,
and the books were opened.

I watched then because of the noise of the arrogant words that the horn was speaking. And as I watched, the beast was put to death and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. As I watched in the night visions,

I saw one like a human being
coming with the clouds of heaven.
And he came to the Ancient One
and was presented before him.
To him was given dominion
and glory and kingship,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not pass away,
and his kingship is one
that shall never be destroyed.

As for me, Daniel, my spirit was troubled within me, and the visions of my head terrified me. I approached one of the attendants to ask him the truth concerning all this. So he said that he would disclose to me the interpretation of the matter: “As for these four great beasts, four kings shall arise out of the earth. But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever — forever and ever.” ~Daniel 7:1–18 NRSVUE

Have you ever noticed that there tends to be a “slight” difference between Disney movies and the Grimm’s fairytales that inspire them? While the Disney versions are perfect for young children, the Grimm’s tellings of the same stories would give most children nightmares. Good stories can be adapted and retold to speak in new ways and to different audiences.

This is particularly evident with Shakespeare. In high school, I remember seeing a college theater department show us how some modern musicals were adapted from Shakespearean plays. On one side of the stage, two actors performed the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, and then actors entered the other side of the stage, performing a parallel scene from Westside Story. They did the same with Taming of the Shrew and Kiss Me Kate and then Two Gentlemen of Verona and the musical Hair. It’s also not uncommon to see modernized versions of Shakespeare’s plays, and one of my friends just wrapped up an all-women production of Twelfth Night. Timeless stories can be reimagined and retold.

When we began our series on Daniel, we learned that the book spans about 400 tumultuous years in the life of the ancient Jewish people. It started with the first Babylonian invasion, during which communities were destroyed when many Judeans were deported and forced to live in exile in Babylon. During the next four centuries, numerous empires arose. Different kings took control of the land where the Jews lived, both in Judea and Babylon. Some empires were mightier, and some kings were more tyrannical than others.

From the past few stories we’ve explored, we know Nebuchadnezzar did some terrible things, like throwing people to the gallows, into fiery furnaces, and into lions’ dens. But he also appointed exiles to positions in his court, even promoting some to high ranks. When advisors weren’t coaxing him to limit the exiles’ ability to worship their God, he tended to let them do as they pleased. The exiles' main struggle during his reign was trying to preserve their culture and practice their faith when away from their homes and the temple.

However, the tone grows darker in chapter 7 of Daniel. We shift from stories of God saving faithful individuals to disturbing apocalyptic visions where scary monsters threaten the masses. Today’s reading is set in the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s son, who made life more challenging for the Jewish exiles than his father had. King Belshazzar did things like steal sacred vessels from the temple in Jerusalem and use them as his personal party chalices.

While this vision is set in the time of King Belshazzar, the story was likely created during the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the most ruthless of all the empirical kings who ruled over the Jewish people. Antiochus desecrated the temple by erecting an altar for Zeus there. He slaughtered many Jewish people and forcefully prohibited surviving exiles from practicing their faith. Those he didn’t kill, he enslaved and force-fed pork, which was a humiliating violation of their faith.

This is the context in which Daniel has his dream. And it reflects the frightening circumstances that his people are enduring.

Winds swirl in all directions over a great sea. Out of this chaos, four different beasts arise. First, a creature like a lion but with eagle wings appears, followed by something like a bear with giant tusks. Then comes a four-headed leopard with wings. Now, I wouldn’t want to come face-to-face with any of these creatures, but the last one is the most terrifying. It’s a dreadful beast with super-strength, iron teeth, and horns, some of which are covered with eyeballs and one of which talks.

When Daniel was faced with a guillotine and hungry lions, he kept his cool, but the creatures in this dream horrify him.

The dream doesn’t stop here, though. Then God, whom Daniel calls “Ancient One” appears as a wise, aged king with long white hair. He’s seated on a throne surrounded by fire and thousands of angelic attendants.

The throne room becomes a courtroom, where each beast receives its sentence. The first three are stripped of their power. Then, the Ancient One sentences the last creature, the most terrifying one, to death, having its body destroyed.

The dream’s not over yet, though. Finally, someone like a human, the “Son of Man,” appears in clouds. The Ancient One gives the Son of Man dominion and kingship of all creation forever.

Now, that’s quite a dream, isn’t it? Disturbed and horrified, Daniel asks an angelic attendant what it means. Each beast represents a king and empire. They will one day all be weakened or destroyed, and God will reign over the whole earth forever.

Does this sound familiar? The meaning of this dream is the same as the meaning of the dream Nebuchadnezzar had in chapter 2. Remember the dream about the statue that’s divided into parts and topples over when a divine stone shatters its feet?

Why might the Book of Daniel contain two dreams with different images but the same meaning? Many scholars believe they’re the same story, that today’s reading is a reimagined version of chapter 2.

Now, why might that happen? Remember, Daniel encompasses four centuries of ancient Jewish experience. These stories were told for generations, some for centuries, before they were written down. Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of the statue offered the people hope during his reign when the exiles struggled to maintain their culture and practice their faith in Babylon.

As the exiles began to suffer more, as it began to feel like their people would never get to go back home, as more and more of them were either slaughtered or enslaved, perhaps the story of a crumbling statue lost its power. Perhaps the people started telling a different, yet similar, story, one with enough grit to match the fear they felt and a more dramatic promise of hope to carry them through.

Elements of this story are reimagined again in another 300 years. When Mark is writing his gospel and searching for images familiar to his Jewish audience and that, to him, describe Jesus, he chooses the phrase “Son of Man” from Daniel. To Mark, Jesus is the one God grants kingship over all the earth.

In the 2000 years since Jesus, certain theologies, biblical interpretations, and doctrines have solidified in the Christian faith. There are also theologies, biblical interpretations, and ideologies that have become enmeshed with American Christianity, in particular. Not all of those serve us well. In fact, some cause real harm, leading people to have to choose between hating themselves or someone they love or walking away from their faith.

Scripture tells us that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, yet it also says that the Divine is always doing a new thing. Both of these can be true. Yet we’re often taught that Scripture has one correct meaning, and that interpretation is the gospel truth for all people for all time.

I’m not suggesting that we should throw tradition out the window. But I do hope Daniel’s vision can give us permission to dream, hopefully not of iron-teethed monsters, but of stories that both reveal truths about God and offer hope to those who are desperate for something to hold onto. The Bible isn’t a flat manual we have to interpret one way for all time and follow to a T in order to avoid eternal damnation. It’s more like a library filled with histories and fiction, poetry and prose, parables, narratives, and letters, teachings that inspire and some that challenge, scary visions and dreams of liberation. Interpretations that cause harm can and should be reimagined because one through-line that weaves throughout the entire Bible is that God is for those who get pushed to the margins. God lifts up those who’ve been knocked down. God is closest to those suffering most. And God is love.

May the stories that we tell and the actions of our lives reflect that.