Scripture Reading: Dan. 9:26; 2:35, 44; 7:13-14; 3:23-25; 10:4-9; 4:17, 25-26; Rev. 19:7-9, 11-16, 19-21; 17:14
Although the book of Daniel is short, it has many points, it speaks of many events and persons, and it contains many spiritual lessons for us. But above, behind, and within all these things, there is something else, and this is God's economy. Of course, the expression God's economy is not found in Daniel; neither is it found anywhere else in the Old Testament. Nevertheless, God's economy is revealed in this book. We all need to see God's economy in the book of Daniel. If we see this vision of God's economy, our whole being will be changed.
Christ is the centrality and universality of God's economy, and God's economy is for Christ to be the centrality and universality in God's move. This is what we must see in our reading of the book of Daniel. The various spiritual lessons and the historical details covered in this book are very good, but they are secondary. What is primary is that in His economy, in His plan with His arrangement, God desires to make Christ the centrality and universality of His move on earth.
Concerning such a Christ, the book of Daniel covers five main points: the death of Christ, the upcoming appearing of Christ, Christ as the Son of Man who comes to the throne of God to receive dominion and a kingdom, Christ as the Companion of the suffering witnesses of God, and the excellency of Christ. I would like to say a word about each of these points.
The first point is Christ's death, Christ's crucifixion. Regarding this, 9:26 says, "After the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing." This word is simple, but it is rich in its implications.
The death of Christ was all-inclusive, comprising every item in the universe. The main item terminated by the death of Christ was the old creation. After God's work in creation, Satan came in to corrupt, poison, devastate, and ruin God's creation. As a result, the entire old creation became not only corrupt but corruption. Yet God still uses that corrupted creation in producing a new creation through Christ's death and resurrection.
Christ's greatest achievement in His first appearing was to terminate the whole creation by His death. In this termination, however, there is something rising up, that is, Christ's resurrection. In His resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) to enliven, to germinate, to regenerate, some of those in the old creation to be the new creation. This new creation begins with the believers as God's sons and Christ's members as the constituents of His Body. This Body will grow and eventually consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21—22), the total aggregate and consummation of God's new creation. This is all involved in Christ's first coming with His death and resurrection.
In the entire universe, Christ's death with His resurrection is a great landmark of the ages. His death has cleared up the entire universe by terminating the old creation spiritually.
Even though the old creation has been terminated, outwardly the world is still the same. Hence, there is the need for Christ's second coming to clear up the entire universe physically and materially. In particular, there is the need for Christ's second coming to terminate human government.
According to Daniel 2:35 and 44, Christ will come as the stone cut out without hands to crush the great human image from the toes to the head. In His coming as such a stone, He will crush Antichrist with the ten toes. However, He will not come by Himself; He will come with His bride (Rev. 19:11, 14). Before His coming He will have a wedding, uniting His overcomers to Himself as one entity (vv. 7-9). Whereas Daniel 2 speaks of Christ coming as a stone cut out without hands, Revelation 19 speaks of Christ coming as the One who has His bride as His army.
Christ is God coming down to fight against rebellious mankind, and mankind is represented by one man who is one with Satan — Antichrist. The very God is embodied in Christ; Christ is with His bride, the overcomers; and Antichrist is one with Satan and one with the ten kings and their armies. These two parties — Christ and Antichrist — will fight. Man will fight against God directly (Rev. 19:19-21; 17:14). The most evil persons on earth will be gathered by Antichrist to one place; that is, the grapes will be gathered together into the winepress (19:15; 14:19-20). Then Christ will come not only to crush the ten toes but also to tread the winepress. This will be Christ's crushing of the human government.
After crushing the human government, God will have cleared up the entire universe. The old creation will be gone, and the human government will become chaff blown away by the wind. Then the corporate Christ, Christ with His overcomers, will become a great mountain to fill the whole earth, making the whole earth God's kingdom (Dan. 2:35, 44). Both the earth and the heaven will then be new for God to exercise His kingdom.
Daniel 7:13-14 reveals that now Christ as the Son of Man is before the throne of God to receive dominion and a kingdom. He is making all the preparations to come back to rule over the entire world with God's kingdom.
While Christ is preparing to come back with the kingdom, He is also the Companion of God's suffering people (3:23-25). Because of the wrong government, God's people are in the "furnace," yet Christ is with them.
Furthermore, 10:4-9 reveals Christ in His excellency. Every part of Christ is excellent and precious. He is the excellent One in the whole universe. This excellent One is the centrality and universality of God's economy.
The book of Daniel also reveals that it is through their environment that Christ becomes the centrality and universality of God's elect. Through the nations as the environment, in the coming days God will eventually make Christ the centrality and universality of Israel. The principle is the same with us today. In this present age of mystery, which is not revealed in Daniel, God is using the environment to make Christ the centrality and universality to us.
We are not simple. On the one hand, we, the believers in Christ, are God's elect; on the other hand, we are parts of the old creation, including such negative things as the beasts described in Daniel 7. As God's elect, we need Christ to be wrought into us as our centrality and universality. However, the old creation in us is sometimes a beast and at other times a Nebuchadnezzar or an Antichrist seeking to defeat, capture, possess, and utilize God's elect. Since we are complicated in this way, we also need to be a Daniel and open our windows toward Jerusalem and pray that Christ will come in to cut off, to terminate, everything in us that is natural and part of the old creation.
Christ becomes our centrality and universality by His appearing in two aspects. First, He has come to terminate us as the old creation and then to germinate us as the new creation. Second, He will come to clear away all the beasts. Depending on our culture and nationality, we all have our own beasts. Those from one part of the world have one kind of beast, and those from another part have a different kind of beast. We need Christ to receive the kingdom from God and come to crush all the beasts and then to become a great mountain that comprises us and that fills the whole earth to be the kingdom of God. By terminating and germinating us and by crushing all the beasts in us, Christ is wrought into our being to become our centrality and universality.
The book of Daniel covers three crucial matters: God's heavenly rule, the preeminence of Christ, and the portion of God's people. In His economy God administrates the universe in order to fulfill His purpose. His purpose is to give Christ the preeminence in all things. God's intention, therefore, is that Christ should be preeminent. For Christ to be the preeminent One, God needs a people. Apart from God's having a people, there is no way for Christ to be made preeminent.
As those who have been chosen by God to be His people for Christ's preeminence, we are under God's heavenly rule. Concerning this, the principle is the same both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Under God's heavenly rule, everything is working together for our good (Rom. 8:28). This is especially true of the things in our personal universe. Our universe includes ourselves, our families, and the church. In our universe many things happen day by day for the purpose of making Christ preeminent. We need to realize this and be submissive to God's heavenly rule.
In 4:26 Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, "Your kingdom will be assured to you after you have come to know that the heavens do rule." It is the heavens that rule, not Nebuchadnezzar or Cyrus or Alexander the Great or illness or turmoil or rebellion. The earth is under the rule of a heavenly administration. The heavens rule for us, and Christ is for us. Furthermore, we are under God's heavenly rule for Christ. The purpose of the heavenly ruling is to complete God's elect so that Christ may be preeminent, that He may be the first — the centrality — and everything — the universality.
Because the heavens rule, Christ is with us in all our situations. When we are sick, He is with us. When we are in turmoil, He is with us. I can testify that we can enjoy His presence in the midst of turmoil and rebellion.
We all need to learn three things: that this universe is under God's administration; that God's intention in His administration is to make Christ preeminent, to cause Him to have the first place in everything; and that for the accomplishment of God's intention, we, His people, His elect, must give Him the best coordination and cooperation. Through our coordination and cooperation, God will consummate His eternal intention to make Christ preeminent through the rule of the heavens.
