July 20, 2011 - Daniel 4

Like chapter 2, the King has a dream that Daniel must interpret for him. Before I read Daniel’s interpretation, I thought I would write what came to my mind during the dream’s description. When he mentioned a tree in the middle of the world, I went back to the Garden of Eden. Then when it talked about the top being cut off but the stump being left, I thought of Adam’s first sin. When that sin occurred, man was changed from a being that was intimately close to God to one that had a separation because of sin. Yet man was left to live out life in this state, much like the trunk was left as a sign of what had happened. That is what came to my mind.
The 7 years is interesting. 7 is a number that is used to show perfection or completeness. Although Daniel’s explanation is for the king, I am not sure if my is that far off. We, as humans, are the tree that was cut down because of our choice to not to trust in God. We thought we could do it on our own and so what we were was destroyed. But we were not extinguished. For “7 years” we toiled, eating grass with the ox and so forth, until we will be completed again with God. The 7 years could be seen as the perfect fulfillment of time, when all things will be completed.
The image of the tree stump reminds me of “The Giving Tree”, one of Paul’s books.