Daniel Unlocked #39. The Coming of the Son of Man.
The lesson in v22 is that we clearly will have a pre-Advent judgment in heaven, one that will occur before the second coming of Jesus. This judgment’s outcome will be in favor of God’s people. For God’s people the judgment is something to look forward to because we have our, lawyer, Jesus, and if our case is in His hands then we cannot lose! (Romans 8:1)
We have noted previously that Jesus quoted from the book of Daniel three times when He gave His discourse on the end (Matthew 24 and 25). However, at His own trial the night before His crucifixion the High Priest asked Him, “I adure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ (Messiah in Hebrew), the son of God?” having been silent for His accusations until now, in response to this direct question, Jesus quoted back at Him Daniel 7:13-14, “You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” The high priest got hysterical!
Jesus took the title for Himself from Daniel 7;13-14 “the Coming of ‘the Son of Man” and announced to the pharisees at His own trial that they would witness this when He returns. (Matt 26:64). How significant is that! How ironic – the judge of humanity being judge by humans. The term, ‘Son of Man,’ is used by Jesus 80 times to refer to himself! By thus doing Jesus placed His hand on the authenticity of the book of Daniel. They slapped Him at his trial for declaring this (V67), but this is a slap in the face to those who challenge the authenticity of the book of Daniel and the Divinity of Jesus.
As the judgment unfolds, a most important figure enters the scene: the Son of man. Who is He?
First, the Son of man appears as an individual, a heavenly figure. But as the title implies, He also displays human traits. In other words, He is a divine-human individual who comes to play an active role in the judgment. Second, the Son of man’s coming with the clouds of heaven is a common image of the Second Coming in the New Testament. However, in Daniel 7:13 specifically, the Son of man is not depicted as coming from heaven to earth, but as moving horizontally from one place in heaven to another to appear before the Ancient of Days. Third, the depiction of the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven suggests a visible manifestation of the Lord. But this imagery also is reminiscent of the high priest who, surrounded by a cloud of incense, enters the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement to perform the purification of the sanctuary.
The Son of man also is a royal figure. He receives “dominion and glory and a kingdom” and “all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him” (Dan. 7:14). The verb “serve” also can be translated as “worship.” It appears nine times in chapters 1–7 (Dan. 3:12, 14, 17, 18, 28; 6:16, 20; 7:14, 27) and conveys the idea of paying homage to a deity. So, because of the attempt to change the law of God, the religious system represented by the little horn corrupts the worship due to God. The judgment portrayed here shows that true worship is eventually restored. The worship system set by the papal system, among other elements, places a fallen human being as a mediator between God and humanity. Daniel shows that the only mediator capable of representing humanity before God is the Son of man. As the Bible says, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).
Despite so much injustice, persecution, and trial, God’s people may look to the future with hope. A look at Daniel’s prophetic panorama of history shows that human history will culminate with the heavenly judgment and the everlasting kingdom of the Son of man. I don’t know about you, but I long for God’s everlasting kingdom to be established soon.
i can’t wait to see Jesus coming with all his angels to take his people home i pray that i,m one of them God bless you 🙏
If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord then you will be one of them.