The Bible

 

Danilo 10

Study

   

1 Treće godine Kira, cara persijskog, objavi se reč Danilu, koji se zvaše Valtasar; i reč beše istinita i o velikim stvarima; i razabra reč i razume utvaru.

2 U to vreme ja Danilo bejah u žalosti tri nedelje dana.

3 Jela ugodna ne jedoh, ni meso ni vino ne uđe u moja usta, niti se namazah uljem dok se ne navršiše tri nedelje dana.

4 A dvadeset četvrtog dana prvog meseca bejah na bregu velike reke Hidekela.

5 I podigoh oči svoje i videh, a to jedan čovek obučen u platno, i pojas beše oko njega od čistog zlata iz Ufaza;

6 A telo mu beše kao hrisolit, i lice mu kao munja, a oči mu kao lučevi zapaljeni, a ruke i noge kao bronza uglađena, a glas od reči njegovih kao glas mnogog ljudstva.

7 I ja Danilo sam videh utvaru, a ljudi što behu sa mnom ne videše je, ali ih popade strah velik, te pobegoše i sakriše se.

8 I ostah sam i videh tu veliku utvaru, i ne osta snage u meni, i lepota mi se nagrdi, i ne imah snage.

9 I čuh glas od reči njegovih, i kad čuh glas od reči njegovih, izvan sebe padoh ničice licem na zemlju.

10 I gle, ruka me se dotače i podiže me na kolena moja i na dlanove moje.

11 I reče mi: Danilo, mili čoveče! Slušaj reči koje ću ti kazati, i stani pravo, jer sam sada poslan k tebi. I kad mi reče tu reč, ustah drhćući.

12 I reče mi: Ne boj se, Danilo, jer prvog dana kad si upravio srce svoje da razumevaš i da mučiš sebe pred Bogom svojim, uslišene biše reči tvoje, i ja dođoh tvojih reči radi.

13 Ali knez carstva persijskog staja mi nasuprot dvadeset i jedan dan; ali, gle, Mihailo jedan od prvih knezova dođe mi u pomoć; tako ja ostah onde kod careva persijskih.

14 I dođoh da ti kažem šta će biti tvom narodu posle; jer će još biti utvara za te dane.

15 I kad mi govoraše tako, oborih oči svoje na zemlju i zanemeh.

16 I gle, kao čovek dotače se usana mojih, i otvorih usta svoja, i progovorih i rekoh onom koji stajaše prema meni: Gospodaru moj, od ove utvare navališe moji bolovi na mene i nema snage u meni.

17 A kako može sluga mog gospodara govoriti s gospodarem mojim? Jer od ovog časa u meni nesta snage i ni dihanje ne osta u meni.

18 Tada onaj što beše kao čovek opet me se dotače i ohrabri me.

19 I reče: Ne boj se, mili čoveče; mir da ti je! Ohrabri se, ohrabri se. I dokle mi govoraše, ohrabrih se i rekoh: Neka govori gospodar moj, jer si me ohrabrio.

20 A on reče: Znaš li zašto sam došao k tebi? A sada ću se vratiti da vojujem na kneza persijskog; potom ću otići, i gle, doći će knez grčki.

21 Ali ću ti kazati šta je napisano u knjizi istinitoj. Nema nikoga da junački radi sa mnom u tom osim Mihaila, kneza vašeg.

   

Commentary

 

Wine

  

Wine played a key role in the ancient world, where safe, reliable water sources were scarce. It could be stored for long periods of time; if lightly fermented it was rich in sugar content; it was high in mineral content; it tasted good and generally had intoxicating qualities. Thus it was a valuable commodity and treated with reverence.

Wine is, of course, made from grapes. Grapes – sweet, juicy, nutritious and full of energy-rich fructose – represent the Lord's own exquisite desire to be good to us. That's powerful stuff! But grapes have a short shelf life; you might eat a bunch for a burst of energy, but you can't exactly carry them around with you for long-term sustenance. And so it is with desires for good: They tend to come to us in energizing bursts, but fade away fairly quickly. We need something more stable and lasting.

At some point in the distant past people figured out that if you squeeze the juice from the grapes and let it ferment, the result is a liquid that offers that stability: wine. The spiritual meaning works the same way; if we examine our desires for good, try to understand and think about how to apply them, what we will get are concepts about what good really is, how to recognize it and how to make it happen. And just like the wine, these ideas offer stability and portability. For instance, finding a wallet full of cash on the sidewalk might severely test our desire to be honest, but the idea that "you shall not steal" is pretty hard to shake.

Wine, then, on the deepest level represents divine truth flowing from divine goodness – the true principles that arise from the fact that the Lord loves us and desires everything good for us.

Wine comes in many varieties, though, and is used in many ways. Depending on context it can represent truth that arises from a desire for good on much more mundane levels. You want your children to be healthy so you make them brush their teeth even though they complain and it's a pain in the neck; the truth that brushing their teeth is good for them is wine on a very day-to-day level.

In some cases wine can also actually represent good things that arise from true ideas, something of a reverse from its inmost meaning. This happens when we are in transitional stages, setting higher ideas and principles above our less-worthy desires in an effort to reshape our actions. In that case our principles are the things being squeezed, with good habits the result.

There is also, of course, a darker side to wine. There is a good deal of debate about just how much alcohol wine had in Biblical times, and some of it may indeed have been more like concentrated grape juice. But there are also many references to wine and drunkeness, so some of it, at least, was fairly potent.

On a spiritual level, getting drunk on wine represents relying too much on our ideas, taking logic to such an extreme that we forget the good things we were trying to achieve in the first place.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 376 [1-40], 1152; Apocalypse Revealed 316, 635; Arcana Coelestia 1071 [1-5], 1727, 3580 [1-4], 5117 [7], 6377, 10137 [1-10]; The Apocalypse Explained 329 [2-4]; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 219)