Transcript
A (0:00)
Welcome to A Year in the Bible with daily grace. This year we want to spend a few minutes with you every day walking through our study, Christ in All of Scripture. Each week we will dive deeply into two passages of scripture, one from the Old Testament and one from the new, seeing how they connect and point to Jesus.
B (0:17)
Whether you are doing the study yourself or just following along with us here, we are hopeful that through studying these passages each week, you will see how Christ is not only present throughout the entire biblical story, but but the center of it. Hi friends. Welcome to A Year in the Bible. My name is Alexa and I'm here with my co host, Beth everyone. We'll be continuing our conversation about Daniel 7, 13, 14 today. So Beth, can you share with us where this passage fits in the overall story of the Bible?
A (0:46)
Of course. So like many of the prophetic books that we've talked about so far, the book of Daniel takes place during Israel's exile in Babylon. And Daniel is a weird book. There are some familiar stories like the lion's den and the fiery furnace, some veggietales classics there. But in the midst of those well known stories, there's also this wild vision in chapter seven, basically Daniel receives a vision from God and in it there are these four terrifying and strange looking beasts that he later learns represents the earthly nations and kings. But as this vision continues, he sees God, who he calls the ancient of days, take his throne. He is surrounded by armies and angels who are all serving and worshiping him. And then all the beasts are destroyed and their power is taken from them. And that's when we get to verse 13, which we annotated yesterday. Then this son of man, which is a poetic way of saying a human being, appears and approaches the throne of God. This man is then granted authority over a kingdom that is not like the kingdoms that the beast represent. This kingdom is everlasting.
B (1:51)
That's super helpful, Beth. I feel like the prophetic chapters of Daniel are something we often avoid because they're just really confusing and strange. But when we understand what's actually happening, it's an incredible reminder of God's sovereignty. And that actually leads me to my next question, which is what does Daniel 7, 13, 15 say about God's character?
A (2:10)
I think there are two things that we can learn about God's character here, and they're very related. First, and most obviously, we see that God is more powerful than any earthly kings or kingdoms. His authority cannot be matched and his kingdom will eventually overthrow all of the kingdoms of Earth. Second, we see that God has always been in control. And so even as he allows these other kingdoms to rule temporarily on Earth, he is the one who's ultimately in charge. And this is especially important for the original audience of Daniel. They were Israelites. These are God's chosen people. But they probably didn't feel very special or cared about as they were living in exile and being ruled by a gruesome and foreign king. A king who defeated their king, killed or captured all of their people, and burned their cities to the ground. I imagine that they didn't feel like God was in control. But Daniel has this vision of their God on his glorious throne and he is called the Ancient of Days, the one who has always been. He has seen all things, the rise and fall of all kingdoms and kings, and yet he remains enthroned. He is more powerful than Babylon and any other nation that will come after Babylon. And his promises are yet to be fulfilled. His eternal kingdom is still yet to come and he is still on his throne and he is still their God.