The book of Daniel has two edges. Second, there are the stories we all heard as children and loved — the fiery furnace, the lion’s den — you get the picture. Then there are these prophecies and dream interpretations, full of weird, geopolitical stuff that’s easy to gloss over because it just does n’t make any sense.
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I used to try to avoid the predictions, but last year, I led a little class at church where we went through the book of Daniel. Having a much better understanding of those predictions after studying them in-depth gave me a much better understanding of them.
Daniel 7 falls into the type of revelation, but it’s a little less incomprehensible than the other prophesy chapters. This book is the center of the book of Daniel, according to N. T. Wright, who likens Daniel’s fantasies to social cartoons that make their point in an exaggerated manner.
These fantasies keep Daniel awake at night. They involve dogs that destroy points — in particular, a creature with ten antlers, including a little trumpet that speaks smack! After on, we learn that these creatures represent kingdoms that, at various times, rule the world.
The chapter’s center should be the subject of your attention, though. In it, we meet two different” characters” that are n’t that hard to figure out: the Ancient of Days:
As I looked, kings were placed, and the Ancient of Times took his seat, his attire was white as snow, and the locks of his head like true sheep, his king was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fireplace. A thousand thousand people served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, the prosecutor sat in view, and the novels were opened. Because of the powerful words the whistle was uttering,” I looked at that time.” And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its system destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. For the rest of the wolves, their rule was revoked, but their lives were shortened for a while and a while.
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And the Son of Man:
In the evening views, I saw a man who appeared to be a son of man in the skies of god. And to him was given authority and glory and a kingdom, that all cultures, nations, and languages should provide him, his authority is an unending authority, which shall not pass away, and his country one that may not get destroyed.
Daniel 7: 9-14 ( ESV )
Who are these two, exactly? ( And this time, Sunday School answers are okay. ) Now I’m not really big on end-time prophecies because they’re so wide open to interpretation, besides, I tend to believe that most people get their eschatology wrong, present company included. For a deeper dive into eschatology, check out my two-part interview with scholar and podcaster Dr. Matthew Halstead.
But this one is pretty clear beyond the beasts and the wings and the legs and the trash-talking horns: at the end of it all, the Ancient of Days ( God the Father ) and the Son of Man ( Jesus the Son, the Messiah ) will rule over everything for eternity.
When Jesus refers to himself as” the Son of Man,” according to Barry Cooper, He is doing much more than just drawing attention to His physical characteristics. He refers to himself as the all-powerful figure that Daniel described, an awe-inspiring individual elevated to the right hand of the Ancient of Days, the One whose authority and kingdom are never-ending.
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Related:  , Sunday Thoughts: Terrors!
We can spend the entire day trying to interpret inscrutable prophecies and visions. The most crucial thing to remember is that our God is sovereign and will always be sovereign, even though we can debate the hows and whens of the end of time all day long ( and people do ). No matter what else life throws our way, we can always have faith in that fact.
Are you still relying on the authority of the Ancient of Days? If not, what’s holding you back from it?