Daily Bible Reading Plans to help you read and understand God’s Word

Scripture Reading: Daniel 7:1-14, Psalm 104:1-5, Mark 14:61-62

I studied political science and economics in college, fascinated by the theories and stories about what helps a people group flourish. I loved mining history for themes, looking for answers to complex questions about political sovereignty, democracy or authoritarianism, and individual versus collective rights. Ultimately I found the questions too small, even at a global and historical scale, because my root assumption was that humans could get it right. The truth, really, is that the only path to human flourishing is through restoration of our right relationship with God, which He accomplished through the person and work of Jesus. 

After Israel had split in two following a civil war and the northern kingdom had been conquered by Assyria, the violent conquering Babylonians decimated Judah, taking its people (including young Daniel) captive. Daniel had to navigate life in a new society, growing in power through his relationship with the king while also remaining faithful to God. Themes of power, sacrifice, integrity, violence, and fear run deep through this book. And yet Daniel knew, because of his unshakeable faith in the one true God, that the ultimate answers to peace, prosperity, and human flourishing wouldn’t be found in the political realm. 

Daniel 7 opens with a prophetic vision that turns the world’s vision of power on its head. Daniel is, as he says in verse 15, anxious and alarmed, by the vision of four winds (Daniel 7:2) and four beasts (v.3). The beasts are wild: a lion with eagle’s wings and the feet of a man, a bear eating three ribs, a leopard with four wings and four heads, and a fourth beast with iron teeth and ten horns. When I read passages like this in Scripture, I can feel anxious and alarmed or certainly confused. But God’s Word is true, Daniel really had this vision, and I can start by asking the Holy Spirit to help me read, understand, and apply these complicated words. 

Daniel was living in exile, his life marked by bad kings and violent governments, wicked and corrupt rulers, and devastated homelands. In the vision, the winged-leopard beast received dominion, and Daniel knew how such power was wielded to crush, confuse, and to catastrophize. But then he saw thrones set in their place, where the Ancient of Days took his seat. The beast that had dominion was killed and the remaining beasts were subdued and allowed to live for a time. The Ancient of Days, the name used by Daniel to describe God, will rule forever. Human nature, driven by insatiable lust for power, will never deliver a dominion of flourishing. But the Ancient of Days, Christ, who sits “at the right hand of power” (Mark 14:62), will rule over the new heaven and the new earth, perfectly, forever.

Written by Melanie Rainer