Day 299: beastly

Daniel 7-8, Revelation 19, Psalm 95 OR Sirach 50

Once again, we are reminded how much prophecy relies on the poetic imagination, the ability to tap into cultural memes and themes that speak to the soul of a nation, and use its history to reveal its future.
Daniel’s vision is of the destruction of the empires that have tormented, dispersed and all but destroyed Jerusalem, exiled its people, wreaked havoc on its religion. John harks back to Babylon to represent Rome and its place in the litany of the oppressors of Israel; as Babylon was, Rome is, and both, not to mention the Medes and the Persians, will suffer the same fate.
It is the hope of those who have no hope; the liberty of those who are not free; to imagine a future in which their oppressors have already been torn down (by divine means, because they can see no hope of releasing themselves from this captivity).
The age of the great empires is arguably over. But what has arisen to take the place of their palaces? The message of Daniel and of the Revelation is not only for Babylon and Rome, but for any system that opposes God and the freedom of God’s people to live in the light, spending theirs days in the knowledge of the love of God and the peace which passes all understanding, rather than the knowledge of the other.
Which empirical system is next for the cycle of the apocalypse, to be revealed as a servant of the false prophets? Where is Babylon?