“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. 2 Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. 3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.”
Daniel 7:1-3
We’ve come to the end of our study of Daniel. So far we have taken a cannonball run through Daniel chapters 1-6. Those seven chapters narrate the life of Daniel (including his three friends) during the seventy years of exile. In contrast to the first half of the book of Daniel, the last half of the book (chapters 7-12) is not sequential and/or narratological as the first half. When we come to chapter 7 the book takes on a completely different outlook and way of looking at history, the world, and eternity. This completely different perspective is “apocalyptic.” Apocalyptic genre of literature is writing intended to shock for dramatic effect. Alistair Begg correctly notes that “God employs apocalyptic language in order to express that which falls outside the normal boundaries of our use of language.” Eternal realities from above in the age to come transcend temporal realities here below in this present age. They transcend in a number of ways; one of those ways is conceptual. Eternal realities are truths which are harder to conceptualize than temporal realities here below. Because of this, the normal language we use to understand the eternal truths of God fall all too short. This is where apocalyptic language comes into play. Apocalyptic language pushes the normal boundaries of ordinary language. Apocalyptic language is highly symbolic and pictorial. The graphic nature of apocalyptic language is prophetic and visionary. This is why John says in vs 2 that “I saw my vision.” Apocalyptic language is closer to a video game than an academic dissertation. Daniel 7, and onward, does not argue about the exact timing of last day events, but are pictures visualizing, through symbolic imaging, the majesty of God: i.e., God who is on His throne ruling and reigning where the future is securely in His hands! Case in point are the four beasts in Daniel seven: the lion with wings, the bear raised up on one side with three ribs in his mouth, the leopard with wings, the composite beast with iron teeth and ten horns—these beasts are pictures visualizing through symbolic imaging the four successive kingdoms/nations/empires of antiquity!
Daniel 7:13-18 predicts that during the last beast’s reign (the Roman Empire) the “son of man” will ascend to heaven before the Ancient of Days and will be bestow to Him a kingdom of the age to come, an everlasting dominion which will never pass away, a kingdom that will destroy the kingdoms of this age! Daniel is depicting, hundreds of year into the future, Jesus Christ’s ascension into heaven where Christ did in fact receive the kingdom of God as God the Father’s vicegerent.
Beloved, what does this mean for us today, the 21st century church? It means we are living during the days of Daniel’s prediction. We are living in the last days where Christ’s kingdom has already been conferred to Him; Christ is presently ruling and reigning on His throne in heaven! And the good news is Christ will return for us; he will return to consummate His kingdom by bringing heaven to earth (or more correctly) heavenizing earth and all creation via glorification: that is, new creation! Providence is moving this way, moving toward consummation. How should we live in light of this reality? We should live (as the Heidelberg Catechism teaches) in confident expectation no matter the ups and downs we experience in this age.
In Christ
Pastor Carl
Reverend G Carl Moore 