With the Clouds of Heaven by James M. Hamilton

Author:James M. Hamilton [Hamilton, James M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2016-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

‘thrones were placed,

and the Ancient of Days took his seat;

his clothing was white as snow,

and the hair of his head like pure wool;

his throne was fiery flames;

its wheels were burning fire.

A stream of fire issued

and came out from before him;

a thousand thousands served him,

and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;

the court sat in judgment,

and the books were opened.’

The placement of thrones in Daniel 7:9 indicates that when the one like a son of man receives his kingdom, he will be enthroned alongside Yahweh. This concept fits not only with Psalm 110:1 but with the way that Psalm 45:6 addresses the Davidic king (cf. Ps. 45:1–5) with the words ‘Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever.’ The king’s throne is closely associated with God’s throne.

The description of the one like a son of man coming ‘with the clouds of heaven’ in Daniel 7:13 indicates that not only is this figure taking part in a drama enacted in the heavenly court, but he travels the way Yahweh himself does. As Peter Gentry notes, ‘The coming on clouds suggests an appearance or theophany of Yahweh himself. If Daniel 7:13 does not refer to an appearance of deity, it is the only exception in about seventy instances in the OT’ (2003: 73).8 The one like a son of man, then, participates in the heavenly scene, where he apparently has a throne next to Yahweh, and where he travels as only Yahweh does.

That ‘thrones’ are set in Daniel 7:9, with the ‘son of man’ of 7:13 receiving the kingdom in 7:14, connects this passage to the promises to David reflected in Psalm 110, where David’s Lord is invited to sit at Yahweh’s right hand, and in Psalm 8, where David reflects on the dominion over the beasts given to the son of man. These points of contact lash the Daniel 7 vision firmly to the broader Old Testament hope for the human king from David’s line. At the same time, however, Daniel sees indications that the king is a heavenly being: the heavenly court scene, the fact that he comes on the clouds, and the comparative ‘like’ in the phrase ‘one like a son of man’ (שנא רבכ, kĕbar ’ĕnāš). A mysterious question arises: How will the human king from David’s line also be a pre-existent member of the heavenly court? The solution of the conundrum awaits further revelation.

At this point we can consider again Ezekiel’s vision. Whereas the ‘likeness as the appearance of a man’ (Ezek. 1:26, my tr.) seems to correspond to Yahweh being enthroned in Daniel 7:9, Ezekiel himself is repeatedly addressed as ‘son of man’ (םדא־ןב, ben-’ādām, Ezek. 2:1, 3, 6, 8, etc.). Caragounis suggests that there are aspects of Ezekiel’s role that inform the use of this phrase. Summarizing the way Ezekiel is commissioned to preach to rebels (2:3), made their watch-man (3:17–18), and then seems to bear their punishment when he is bound with ropes (3:25) and parabolically enacts the siege and punishment of Israel

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