Daniel 2 – Two
years into service for Nebuchadnezzar, the king has a terrifying dream and he “called
in his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers, and he demanded that
they tell him what he had dreamed” (2:2). They assure him that if he tells them
what he dreamed they will be able to interpret it, tell him what it means; but
he thinks they should be able to tell him what it was he dreamed, not just its
meaning.
He threatens the sages [wise men] to tell him what it is as
proof that they will be able to interpret it. He also, somewhat mysteriously,
sends men to go and kill Daniel and his friends; they must also have been
thought to be among the “sages” serving Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel asks for a little more time to tell the king what he
wants to know. He goes and tells his friends what has happened, and “he urged
them to ask the God of heaven to show then his mercy by telling them the
secret, so they would not be executed along with the other wise men of Babylon”
(2:18).
That night “the secret [is] revealed to Daniel in a vision. Daniel
is taken to the king, and he says, “While Your Majesty was sleeping, you
dreamed about coming events. . . And it is not because I am wiser than anyone
else that I know the secret of your dream, but because God wants you to
understand what was in your heart.” (2:30).
The dream was of a “huge, shining statue of a man” (2:31).
The head of the statue was made of gold, the chest and arms were of silver, the
belly and thighs were of bronze and the legs were made of iron. The feet were a
combination of iron and baked clay. He tells the king, “As you watched, a rock
was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. It struck the feet of iron and
clay, smashing them to bits” (2:32-33). The whole statue was crushed and the
wind blew it all away; but “the rock that knocked the statue down became a
great mountain that covered the whole earth” (2:35).
Then Daniel interprets the dream as follows: “Your Majesty,
you are the greatest of kings. The God of heaven has given you sovereignty,
power, strength, and honor. He has made you the ruler over all the inhabited
world and has put even the wild animals and birds under your control. You are
the head of gold. But after your kingdom comes to an end, another kingdom,
inferior to yours, will rise to take your place. After that kingdom has fallen,
yet a third kingdom, represented by bronze, will rise to rule the world”
(2:37-39). And so on down the statue. One kingdom after another will come and
go. The kingdom represented by the feet, the mixture of iron and class, will be
kingdoms that try to be strong through alliances and intermarriages. “But they
will not hold together, just as iron and clay do not mix” (2:43).
“During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will
set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all
these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever” (2:44). That will
be like the rock.
Nebuchadnezzar rewards Daniel for interpreting this dream
with a “high position and gave him many valuable gifts. He made Daniel ruler
over the whole province of Babylon, as well as chief over all his wise men”
(2:48). He also appoints Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be “in charge of
all the affairs of the province of Babylon, while Daniel remained in the king’s
court” (2:49).
From Leadings: A Catholic’s Journey Through
Quakerism
“Catholic Again”
Part 1
For me, being a Catholic means being in unity with the
church that the apostles started, with the promise-bearing institution Christ
charged with the mission of bringing God’s redemption forward in history. It
doesn’t mean rejecting what I learned from Friends or the sense of God’s
continuous presence in my life that Friends brought me to see. To me, the
truths the Catholic Church defends and the truths that I found among Friends
represent the two necessary poles of the Christian gospel—the corporate and
outward (sacramental) pole on the one side and the personal, inward pole on the
other. These poles sometimes seem to be
mutually exclusive and contradictory, but the truth is they are poles that need
to be in constant tension. It is the tension between them that makes the
spiritual life dynamic – capable of stages, growth, and transformation.
As I mentioned in the previous chapter, there are areas
where Quaker and Catholic spiritualities really do coincide, and I want to
devote more time to developing how I think this is true. Of course, there are
also areas where the differences are profound and where I have missed the
“culture” of faith I enjoyed among Friends. I am constantly reminded inwardly
that coming back was only part of the calling I felt as a Friend; the second
part was that I bring to the Church the things I found among Friends that could
enrich it even more. This, of course, has been far more challenging.
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