After the End, a reflection on Daniel 1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149

In my recent experience, the local church has celebrated All Saints Day by remembering by name the members of the congregation that have died in the last year. The church gathers, remembers, is consoled. This passage from Daniel when I looked at it today at first didn't seem to me to fit the mood or message of that kind of service. But, I kept looking--at the words of Daniel, and, of course, of the words of commentators.

Daniel is living in troubled times. He is expecting apocalyptic change to come into his world. I have been thinking about All Saints Day as a time we remember someone we have lost and receive consolation that that person is not in the presence of the Lord. Daniel was thinking about his whole nation and everybody in it being swept up. As he said, "my spirit was troubled within me, and the visions of my head terrified me."

Yet, the response to this terror is also one of great consolation, a promise to the holy ones of life in the kingdom of God forever.

Background, repeat of a post from 2009 on another passage from Daniel:

Cyrus of Persia had conquered the Babylonians and allowed the Judeans to return home from exile and to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Limited automony under Persian rule continued until Alexander led the Greek defeat of Persia. After his death, his empire split into rival empires--and Judea lay between them.

At the time the book of Daniel was written, the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, the Secleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes had turned his attention to control of the Jerusalem temple and the gold that was there.

Hear echoes of their situation in the reading from Daniel 7. In a time that a great beast that devoured and crushed, Daniel has a vision (7:1-8).

In his vision, Daniel sees the Ancient of Days, a overwhelmingly powerful one who is served by thousands and myriads. Daniel then sees what he describes as One like a human being. This one is presented to the Ancient One who gives him dominion, glory, and kingship. Every nation of every language is to serve him. His dominion is eternal.

[Source: Lawrence M. Wills, commentary in the Jewish Study Bible]

Christians have appropriated this vision for the coming of Christ because we see his role as one to break the dominion of those who would do harm. We agree with the Jews that God is sovereign over history and that God intends blessings for us not repression and violence....