Daniel 7-9
Rewind back to the life of Daniel, back to the time of Babylonian rule before the Persians, before the lions’ den and even before the handwriting on the wall. That’s the setting for Daniel’s receiving of the visions of Daniel 7-8. (Daniel 9 is after the handwriting on the wall.) So why are we reading these chapters now and not earlier? It is because the content of Daniel’s visions pertains to the Persians and even more so to the Greeks and Romans, to the coming of Christ, and to the establishment of His everlasting Kingdom.
In Daniel 7-8, if all we had were the original visions of the four beasts and of the ram and the goat, we might be left scratching our heads wondering what they could mean. Fortunately for us, an angel explains the visions to Daniel, and with a little knowledge of history we can see how they play out. Naturally, we do not have the time or space here to review all that history, so I’ll refer you to the following for a “brief” overview:
Have you got all that? Good. Suffice it to say that Daniel’s visions give us a pretty good overview of the broad sweep of history reaching from his own frame of reference all the way to the Second Coming, speaking of which:
I saw in the night visions,
Daniel 7:13-14
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came One like a Son of Man,
and He came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before Him.
And 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 one
that shall not be destroyed.
It is from this passage (apparently) that Jesus draws His favorite title for Himself: The Son of Man. It is entirely understandable how one might not recognize how a poor itinerant Preacher, hanging out with fishermen around the Sea of Galilee and getting Himself crucified, could possibly be this Son of Man Whose dominion is everlasting, but that discounts the Resurrection. When this Son of Man comes again, there will be no mistaking it. All other kingdoms, empires, nations, and superpowers will bow before Him.
We might want to live accordingly.
One more thing…
It is tempting to spend a tremendous level of effort deciphering the “seventy weeks” of which the angel Gabriel speaks in Daniel 9:24-27. And we could argue over the finer points of multiple interpretations. And in so doing we could miss the main point, that God has it all worked out. We might also completely miss Daniel’s prayer leading up to Gabriel’s visit. (Daniel 9:1-19) I suggest that we would do well to spend a little more time meditating on the content of that prayer and learn from Daniel’s example.