[Tulips, 2010, JAVanDevender]
Daniel 7:13-14 " I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.
The sheer exuberance of this vision, the metaphorical detail which sets it apart and the amazing breadth of its content can easily explain the affect it had on poor Daniel. The next verse tells us that he was "grieved" in his spirit after wards. I think that it putting it mildly. I would have been a little puddle of badly shaken nerves. Even today as I read it I get the sensation of cold chills running up and down my spine. The ... HOLINESS.... of it... grabs my heart and my mind and unites them in astonishment.
I don't believe there is any other genre of ancient literature, outside the Bible, which has the sheer audacity to seriously portray such a prophesy. This vision is as far removed from the oracle at Delphi as you can get. Astrologers, working for pay, always smoozing up to their king, have often given him very encouraging predictions about how great he is going to be... what great battles he is going to win... etc. But no where do you see them going out on a limb and talking about something with this world encompassing result.
One day there will come a man, but more than a man, the Son of Man. One day there will come an individual who will, in Himself, sum up the entire human race, the entire created span of two legged thinking beings that we call humans. He is the Son... the product... the culminating number of a finite sequence which represents the sum of all that has gone before...
This Son will be given dominion over all the earth... every nook and cranny. No one will be outside His sphere of authority. There will be no opposition left because all enemies will be defeated. He will reign forever because He will be beyond death, having defeated that last enemy personally in His own Person.
And He shall reign... forever and ever (Handel, Messiah, has anyone ever sung it better?).
There is only one response that is both appropriate and possible to such a vision. It is to worship with gladness and anticipation. It is to throw down whatever paltry crowns of achievement we possess before His feet and hail Him as worthy... Maranatha Lord Jesus, Come Quickly...
Comments