A Lantern to My Feet by Eaton John;

Author:Eaton, John;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Authentic Media

One Like a Son of Man Made King for Ever

Daniel 7.9–14

As I watched, thrones were set in place, and one who was venerable in years took his seat. His robe was white as snow, and the hair of his head like purest wool. His throne was of fiery flames and its wheels of burning fire. A torrent of fire streamed out before him. Thousands of thousands served him and ten thousand times ten thousand waited before him. The court sat in judgement and the books were opened. And I watched until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away but their lives were prolonged for a time and a season.

Still I watched in visions of the night, and see with the clouds of heaven came one like a son of man. He approached the Ancient in years and was presented to him. And he was given dominion and glory and the kingdom, that all peoples and nations of every language should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is one that shall never be destroyed.

Among the encouragements given to the persecuted in the book of Daniel are visions of the future. These show the present tyrannies destroyed and the good kingdom of God triumphant. Daniel sees an ocean stirred up by raging winds. Four beasts emerge, chaos figures representing the succession of world empires. The fourth is the most fearsome, its several horns representing its particular kings. The worst king is the current ruler, Antiochus IV. But the court of the Most High, God Almighty, ‘the Ancient in years’, condemns and destroys his tyranny. Who now will rule the world?

In contrast to the chaos-beasts, Daniel now sees a figure in human form, ‘one like a son of man’, coming with the clouds of heaven before the Most High God. In the image of God, he comes from heaven, in contrast to the wicked figures from the chaos waters. Before the Most High he is installed as ruler, entrusted with the execution of the will of God for ever. He appears as both an individual and as representative of the suffering people of God, now victorious in the everlasting era of the kingdom of God.

Preserved not in Hebrew but in Aramaic, our passage will be an important influence on the Gospels, with their imagination of the dawning of the kingdom of God and the royal figure of the Son of Man.

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