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Scripture Reading: Dan. 7:9-10, 13-14, 26-27
In this message we will consider further the vision in Daniel 7 concerning the four beasts out of the Mediterranean Sea. We have seen that these four beasts are dreadful and terrible, doing whatever they desire as if there were no God in the universe. However, this chapter reveals that the Ancient of Days is still on the throne.
Daniel 7:9 and 10 speak of God and His universal dominion.
Verse 9a says, "I watched / Until thrones were set, / And the Ancient of Days sat down. / His clothing was like white snow, / And the hair of His head was like pure wool." This signifies that God is ancient.
His throne was flames of fire; its wheels were burning fire; and a stream of fire issued forth and came out from before Him (vv. 9b-10a). Everything around Him is fire, meaning that God is absolutely righteous and altogether holy. Without holiness no one can see the Lord or contact Him (Heb. 12:14).
Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousands of ten thousands stood before Him (Dan. 7:10b). This vast number of angels ministered to Him for His service and stood before Him for His glory.
The court of judgment sat, mainly to judge the four human empires signified by the four wild beasts (vv. 10c, 26). A special court, with God's throne as the center, has been set up in the universe to judge the four human empires. Everything that is judged by this court will be cast into the burning fire.
Concerning His judgment, God has given all power and authority to Jesus Christ as the Son of Man (John 5:22). Hence, Daniel 7:13 and 14 describe the coming of the Son of Man — Christ.
According to verse 13a, Christ came like a Son of Man with the clouds of heaven.
The Son of Man, Christ, came to the Ancient of Days and was brought near before Him (v. 13b). The coming here is Christ's ascending.
Daniel 9:26, referring to the death of Christ on the cross for our redemption, speaks of Messiah's being cut off. This was a great achievement, the work of redemption, accomplished by Christ in His first appearance on earth. After Christ accomplished the work of redemption, He ascended to the heavens.
This could be mentioned in Daniel 7 because there is no time element with God. In the sight of God, immediately after accomplishing redemption, Christ ascended to the heavens, coming to God to receive the kingdom. This indicates that from God's point of view the kingdom comes right after redemption.
Daniel did not have any idea concerning the church. Like Abraham, David, and the other prophets, he did not see the mystery of the church which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations. He did not realize that between the first and second appearing of Christ there would be a period of time during which God would do a marvelous and mysterious work based on Christ's redemption. This work is to regenerate His redeemed people and then sanctify them, renew them, transform them, and conform them to the glorious image of Christ. According to Daniel's vision, Christ accomplished redemption and then immediately came to God in ascension to receive the kingdom.
To Him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages might serve Him. His dominion is an eternal dominion, which will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed (v. 14; Luke 19:12, 15a). This is Christ's kingdom; it is also God's kingdom.
In His second appearing Christ will come as a stone (Matt. 21:44b) cut out without hands (not by man's hands) to strike the great human image (the human government on earth) on its feet of iron and clay (the Roman Empire under Antichrist) and crush the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold (the entire human government on earth). All the materials of the great image will become like chaff from the summer threshing floors, and the wind will carry them away so that no trace of them will be found (Dan. 2:34-35a, 45a). The cumulative culture of all the empires signified by the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, and the clay will be crushed by this stone. Thus, the Lord will clear up the entire old creation.
As the stone cut out without hands, Christ will become a great mountain (a great kingdom — the eternal kingdom of God) and will fill the whole earth forever and ever (2:35b, 44). In Mark 4 He was sown as a little seed to be the kingdom of God, but He grows in His increase to become a stone, the increased kingdom of God. Then He will increase further and further until He becomes the great mountain, the eternal kingdom of God. This is the Christ who fills all in all, and the church is His Body.
Christ's coming will terminate the entire human government on earth from its end to its beginning, and it will bring in the eternal kingdom of God.
The crushing of the great human image from the toes to the head will be Christ's universal judgment upon the aggregate of the human government from Antichrist back to Nimrod. In this way Christ will clear up the old creation. In His first coming Christ terminated the old creation through His death on the cross. Then in His resurrection He germinated the new creation. All this is mysterious. Outwardly, the world remains the same, and the human government that began with Nimrod continues to exist. For this reason, there is the need of Christ's second coming, His second appearing, to clear up the old creation outwardly and physically by His smashing the great human image. That clearing up of the old creation in its human government will usher in the universal and eternal kingdom of God. In the kingdom the Lord will enjoy the fruit of His work — being one with His redeemed people.
The book of Daniel bears a particular characteristic, that is, to draw the marking lines of the ages.
First, the cutting off of Messiah (the crucifixion of Christ) in 9:26 terminated the age of the old creation for the germination of the age of the new creation in Christ's resurrection. In His crucifixion He, the last Adam, terminated the old creation, and in His resurrection He became the germinating Spirit, the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) to germinate us in His resurrection.
Paul tells us that Christ's death terminated the old creation, for our old man was crucified with Him (Rom. 6:6). This termination of the old creation is for the germination of the new creation. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." In Galatians 6:15 he goes on to say, "Neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation." This new creation is the church. Through Christ's resurrection we have been germinated — that is, made alive, regenerated — to become the sons of God as the new creation to be the Body of Christ. When He becomes the King to rule over the entire earth, we will be a part of Him. He will be the King, and we will be His co-kings.
The upcoming appearing of Christ (Dan. 7:13-14) will end the age of man's government on earth of the old creation (which began from Babel in the land of Shinar — Gen. 10:8-12; 11:2-4 — and will be destroyed at the end of the present age), and it will initiate the age of God's dominion over the entire earth in the millennium and in the new heaven and new earth. The entire universe will be new.
Two things are problems to God — the old creation produced out of Adam and the human government. According to the vision in Daniel 7, every kind of human government is a beast. The first problem — the old creation — was solved through Christ's death. The second problem — human government — will be solved by Christ's coming as the stone cut out without hands to crush the great human image, thus ending the age of man's government on earth in the old creation.
The seventy weeks unveiled in 9:24-27 show the lines of the age of the return of Israel from their captivity and the rebuilding of their holy temple and their holy city until the crucifixion of Christ; the age of mystery (the age of the church), the length of which is unknown; and the last seven years of the present age, which usher in the millennium and the new heaven and new earth for eternity.
We need to have a clear view concerning chapter seven of Daniel. This chapter covers a vast span — from Babylon, the first beast, to the new heaven and new earth. If we have such a clear view, we will know where we are today with respect to the parts of the great human image. I believe that we are close to the time of the ten toes.
In 7:15-28 Daniel was given the interpretation of the vision which he had seen in verses 1 through 14.
