Book of Daniel - Lesson 5 - Chapters 7-9

Chapter 7 of Daniel ends with Daniel being alarmed and troubled at the vision he has seen. He does not understand it all. This is not a surprise, since the New Testament tells us that this is the reaction of many Old Testament prophets. See the words of 1 Peter 1:10-12. Daniel does the right thing, though. He keeps the vision in his heart and seeks to understand more. It is the way faithful people reacted to the birth of John the Baptist in Luke 1:65-66, and how Mary reacted to all she saw and heard at the birth of Jesus and later in Luke 2:19 and 2:51. This is a good reminder for us all — to keep God’s Word in our hearts and to let Scripture interpret Scripture over time, when we don’t understand some things. See Psalm 119 and especially verses like 119:9-16 and 119:97-105.

In Daniel 7, we heard Daniel’s vision of the four beasts, representing four kingdoms that will come and go, as all earthly kingdoms do –  the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the Roman. It parallels the vision of Chapter 2, talking about the same kingdoms and their rise and fall, but the eternal kingdom of “The Stone,” our Lord Jesus, Who would and did come. The parallel to “The Stone” is “one like a Son of Man” in 7:13-14, Who appears before “the Ancient of Days” (God the Father) in a courtroom scene, (7:9-10). The “Son of Man” is declared to have glory and dominion and an everlasting kingdom (7:14) in which His believers, His saints, will also be blessed (7:27). This chapter is actually giving a glimpse of God’s whole plan of salvation coming through His “Son of Man,” Jesus.

The term “son of man” occurs in other places in the Old Testament, with regard to people like Daniel (Daniel 8:17) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2:1 and 92 other times), who were God’s prophets and pointed forward to the true “Son of Man” to come, Jesus. The term is also used in Psalm 8:3-4 about God’s care for all human beings; but the “Son of Man” referred to in this psalm is much more than an ordinary human being or even a prophet, as verses 5-6 clearly indicate. All things will be put under His feet. See how this passage is quoted and used in Hebrews 2:5-9 with reference to Jesus. No other “son of man,” no other ordinary human being, could be and do what Jesus would do. See also Psalm 146:3-4 and Psalm 60:11-12, for example. Only One from heaven, coming “with the clouds of heaven like a Son of Man” (Daniel 7:13) could do the saving work of God, in contrast with those of the beasts, those of purely earthly origin (Daniel 7:3, 7:17). 

This One is already in the presence of God the Father, the “Ancient of Days,” in the vision that Daniel sees, too. Only the Holy God Himself and His angels could be in this heavenly assembly. This means that the “One like a Son of Man” that Daniel sees is also holy and already has the authority and dominion spoken of. Note also the similarity of how the Ancient of Days looks in Daniel 7:9-10 and what John saw of the risen and ascended Lord Jesus in heaven, Who is called “one like a Son of Man” in Revelation 1:13-18.

We have the great privilege of living in a time where we have the whole New Testament that makes all this clearer, especially as Jesus often used the term “Son of Man” about Himself. He uses this term to refer to Himself as the very Son of God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as the One True Triune God, but also as a true human being, who did not always use His Godly power but went humbly to the cross to die for us. John 1:1-5,14-15,18 clearly tells us that Jesus is God the Son, Who was and “is at the Father’s side,” and “became flesh and dwelt among us.” 

Very early in His ministry, Jesus forgave the sins of a paralyzed man and said, “That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” He healed the man. In Luke 6:1-5, Jesus allowed His disciples to do what some thought was unlawful on the Sabbath and says of Himself, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” He is Lord! In John 5:20-27, Jesus calls Himself both the Son of God and the Son of Man, and says that He has the power to judge and to give life – the power pictured in the “court” that “sat in judgment” in Daniel 7:10.

Here is a list of more of these New Testament passages where Jesus calls Himself “the Son of Man” in what the catechism calls His “State of Humiliation” as he humbly went to the cross to earn salvation for us.:
 
Matthew 8:19-20
“The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Matthew 12:40       
Like Jonah in the belly of the great fish, “so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Mark 8:31                
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

Mark 10:45              
“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” 

Luke 19:10                
“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

John 12:23,31-34.   
“And Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.... Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself. ‘ He said this to show by what kind of death He was going to die.” (Note in verse 34 that the people knew some of these terms, but did not really understand that Jesus was the “Christ” and “the Son of Man,” Who would soon die for them.)

Jesus uses this “Son of Man” term also for what the catechism calls His coming “State of Exultation” with His resurrection and ascension and return to His Father in heaven and on the last day His return to this earth.

John 6:62                     
“Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?”

Mark 14:61-62          
“Again the High Priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

 Luke 12:40                       
“You must also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

In summary, how rich the New Testament is in talking about Jesus, the “Son of Man,” and His saving work for us. One more example: in the Hebrew language, “Adam” is simply the word that means “man.” Romans 5:12-21 reminds us that through the first man, Adam, and his rebellion against God and fall into sin, “death spread to all men because all men sinned.” Through the second Adam, though, the One Man, Jesus Christ, came the free gift of justification and life and righteousness through what He did for us, as the Son of Man.

As we go into Daniel Chapter 8, we see another vision, given earlier to Daniel by God, while Belshazzar is still the leader of Babylon. Daniel sees himself being in the Medo-Persian capital of Susa, where he sees a vision of a powerful ram with two horns, one higher than the other, that moves in many directions and conquers many (Daniel 8:1-4). Then Daniel sees a vision of a male goat flying across the earth with a great horn that destroys the ram and becomes very great. But then that horn is broken and replaced by four other horns (Daniel 8:5-8). 

The angel Gabriel is then sent by a man, likely the Son of Man, who tells Daniel that the Ram refers to the Medo-Persian empire to come, with the Persian part the stronger “horn” (Daniel 8:15-20). The goat is then identified as the great King of Greece to come, who would defeat the Medo-Persian Empire. (History tells us that this person was Alexander the Great, who created a great empire, but was in power only from 331-323 BC and then died suddenly. His kingdom was divided into 4 area with 4 leaders (Hebrews 8:21-23).) 

Later, out of one of the four horns comes “a little horn“ that creates much trouble for “the glorious land” (Israel) and “the host of heaven” (the people of Israel and their way of life and worship). This troubled time for God’s people will be limited by God and His timing (Hebrews 8:9-14). The ram and the goat parallel part of the image in Chapter 2, and the bear and the leopard in Chapter 7, picturing the rise and fall of empires. We will hear more about this next week along with what is said in Daniel 8:23-26.  

Once again, Daniel was appalled by what he saw and it made him sick for some days. But then he “rose and went about the king’s business” (Daniel 8:27). Whatever was coming, Daniel still trusted God and knew he should keep doing what God had placed him in the Babylonian empire to do – to serve the leaders there and be a witness for the one true God.

As Chapter 9 of Daniel begins, the Medo-Persian empire has come into power over the Babylonians. Daniel has been studying Scripture, portions of the prophecy of Jeremiah about the Babylonian captivity and why it had happened – because of the terrible sinfulness of God’s people, in spite of what Jeremiah and other prophets had preached and warned about (Daniel 9:1-2). Jeremiah realized that the captivity would last for 70 years. You can read Jeremiah 29:10-14, as an example of what Jeremiah had said. In that passage, God says, “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you” (v.12). 

Daniel did not know just when those 70 years began and when they would end, but he knew that he needed to stop and take time to pray for himself and his people of Israel, in repentance for their many, many sins and asking for God’s mercy and forgiveness. We offer a general prayer of confession every week in worship, repenting of our sins. Daniel’s prayer, in Daniel 9:3-19, is a great example of a prayer of repentance from which we could learn in our own prayers, as we are “poor, miserable sinners” ourselves. 

Read through the prayer and consider what Daniel says. Note that Daniel admits that God had warned very clearly of the consequences of forsaking Him, including in the Law of Moses. See Leviticus 26:14-39 and Deuteronomy 28:15-68, as long example of these warnings. Deuteronomy 28, verses 15 and 20 might be a summary of the warnings. Note finally that Daniel asks that God give forgiveness “for His own sake” and because of His own righteousness. Daniel has nothing he can offer to God to earn His forgiveness. Daniel simply says, “We do not present our pleas before you because of our own righteousness, but because of Your great mercy. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive” ( Daniel 9:18-19). It is the teaching of forgiveness and salvation purely by God’s mercy and grace without any merit on our part; and as we heard today, it comes through what Jesus, the Son of Man, did for us as our Savior. We say, with the publican, the tax collector, in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18:9-14: “God be merciful to me, a sinner” (v.13).

We will talk a little more about this next week and see God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer and then move on to a hard passage, Daniel 9:24-27, and what follows.