Image: "Caught In The Act", 2020, Severna Park, Md
Daniel 7:2–4 Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. 3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. 4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
Daniel 7:9–10 “I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire;... A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ... The court was seated,
And the books were opened.
Daniel 7:13 “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.
Daniel 7:27 Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.’
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There is so much overlap between Daniel 7 and the Revelation given to John that you almost have to read both at the same time. Both present God the Father, the Eternal Ancient of Days, seated on His throne, attended by innumerable heavenly beings and the saints gathered to Him. Both show Him judging the deeds of men as they play out in the "sea" of history before Him. Nothing surprises Him, nothing is beyond His careful ordering of events. Various "beasts" arise out of the "sea of history" and here there is some difference between Daniel and Rev. 4, but the main premise is the same. In both Daniel and Rev. 5, one like the Son of Man comes before God the Father. This is the crucified, risen and ascended Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God. IN Daniel the "books were opened" when the court was seated (7:10), in Revelation 5 the Lamb comes forward to take the "scroll" / "book" from the Father's hand and is alone worthy to open it.
But the key point in both books is, that in the face of man's vain attempts to establish kingdoms which will meet the needs of mankind, furnish peace and prosperity through human endeavors, it is only through the Lamb that such a Kingdom can be established. In fact, the Lamb wages war against all of man's attempts at sovereignty. The four beasts in Daniel 7 are the successive kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Alexander the Great and Rome. All of these arise in space and time. All of these are plainly visible to God in the "sea" before Him and it is His good pleasure to reveal them to Daniel. Man cannot control history. Man encounters history as a "series of events." In His brute arrogance, man may call himself "master of his own fate" but foolish pomposity is all that it is. Only God controls the flow of time. Only God can raise up kingdoms and throw them down at His pleasure. It is not through such purely human endeavors that the solutions man so desperately desires will be attained.
But... those solutions will come about.
When the Lamb is given His kingdom we are told that His dominion is an everlasting dominion over "all peoples, nations, and languages" (7:14). Here is what Babylon, Persia, Alexander all sought to build on their own. They sought it on their own merit, but such is impossible. But, in this basic human desire, we see that God's intention is to provide it. He intends to build Christ's Kingdom to bring all mankind into harmony. This Kingdom will furnish the deep needs of every man and woman. But its foundation is entirely different than that of man's strivings. We are told in 7:27 that when the last human attempt to coop for himself autonomous rule is defeated, then the "greatness of the kingdoms... shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High."
Is this not incredible? It shall be "given" to the saints. All man's strivings will prove futile... it is by grace that man's ultimate felicity will be attained. The Kingdom is real, even now, though it is entered spiritually through grace. In God's good time, as the sea of time is drained and is no more, then this Kingdom shall be manifested on earth with great glory. But it will be the same Kingdom, built on the work of the Lamb Himself.
Daniel "thoughts" were "greatly troubled" by this vision. No doubt because he saw that none of the "beasts" were a reinstituted Davidic Kingdom in Israel. He could not rise to the glory of the true Messianic David and understand that ethnic Israel, whom he loved so much, had, with this David, completed its purpose. He was "troubled" but he should not have been and nor should we.
This is "Good News". Our God will bring about His Kingdom among us and within us and it shall never end. One day, what we see now only dimly, will be seen in bright relief. We have a Kingdom, and a King, and all the blessings of both have been given to us. That's a great relief.
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