We are engaged in a month-long study of the book of Daniel here at First Presbyterian Church here on Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday nights, and we’ve come today to the seventh chapter, which you can find on page 744 if you’re using one of our church Bibles.
While verse 1 makes this event something of a flashback, it tells us that the vision that Daniel has here actually takes place before the events we considered in chapter 5 during the first year of the reign of King Belshazzar, we are nevertheless moving here in chapter 7 from the courtroom narratives of the first half of the book into the more challenging apocalyptic visions that will occupy the remainder of Daniel. We have been slowly climbing the roller coaster in these opening chapters and now we’re at the top, so buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride from here! Apocalyptic, as you may know, is not meant to be the Biblical equivalent of The Times’ crossword puzzle, offering us cryptic clues to the hidden meaning of world events that are yet to unfold as if the most important tool for interpreting Daniel or Revelation or the other apocalyptic parts of the Bible, the most important tool was a 24-hours cable news service. If we read Daniel 7 asking whether what’s happening in Israel and Gaza, Russia and Ukraine, China and America fulfills the symbolism of the fourth beast and the ten horns, or whether Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un is the little horn, if that’s our approach we are almost certainly going to miss the point. Apocalyptic is meant to show us by vivid and sometimes disturbing images the perverse power of human evil, the triumphant sovereignty of God, and ultimately the reign, the saving reign of Jesus Christ, His appointed King. And if we can keep our eyes focused there – on the glory of God who reigns and rescues His people by Jesus Christ – if we can do that, however obscure or difficult the details of any given text might be, we will not go far wrong in our interpretation.
And so with that in mind, I do want to consider three themes with you in this chapter. First, in verses 1 through 8, we are shown a world where monsters live. A world where monsters live. But then secondly, verses 9 through 14, the curtain rises on a court where justice rules. So this is a world where monsters live that we all inhabit, but there is a court where justice rules. And then finally, 15 through 28, we are engaged in a conflict where heaven wins. A conflict where heaven wins. A world where monsters live. A court where justice rules. And a conflict where heaven wins. As always, before we read the passage together, let’s bow our heads and ask for the Lord to help us. Let us pray.
O Lord our God, we plead with You that as Your Word is read now and as it is proclaimed that the Lord Jesus Himself would come and be our preacher and open our eyes and open our hearts and enable us to receive and rest upon Him with renewed faith and hope and holy joy, for His glory and praise. Amen.
Daniel chapter 7 at the first verse. This is the Word of God:
“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. Daniel declared, ‘I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.
As I looked,
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.
I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, 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 season and a time.
I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me. I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things. ‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.’
Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet, and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions.As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.
Thus he said:
‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.’
Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly alarmed me, and my color changed, but I kept the matter in my heart.”
Amen.
Let’s think first about verses 1 through 8 – a world where monsters live. Daniel sees four monsters in this passage, doesn’t he. Later in verse 17 we learn these four monsters represent four earthly kings and their kingdoms. And let me point out a few details about them. First of all, notice their origin. They arise out of the sea. Now in the Bible, the sea is symbolic of chaos and evil. At creation, God brings order out of chaos by His Spirit hovering over the surface of the deep. The great monstrous beast, Leviathan, lives in the sea. In Revelation 21:1, in the vision of the new creation at the end of the age that the apostle John sees, we are told that there was “no more sea.” He doesn’t mean there won’t be any beaches in the new creation; I have no idea if there will be or not. What he means is that there will be no source of threat or danger or malice or evil anymore. Gone forever. And so that’s what this image of the sea here represents. These four monsters rise up out of the sea. It’s meant to throw a red flag out onto the field for us. Right away we are being clued into their character. These are servants of evil, agents of chaos, instruments of degradation and destruction.
And consistent with their origin and character, notice their distinguishing features. The first monster in verse 4 is “like a lion with eagles’ wings,” implying that it is both ferocious like a lion and swift to execute its will like an eagle. But its wings are plucked off. Did you see that? And it’s made to stand up like a man and given the mind of a man. In other words, it is humbled and its ferocity is stripped away. Almost certainly this first kingdom represents Babylon and the humbling of Nebuchadnezzar who was brought low under the afflicting hand of God. The second beast in verse 5 is like a bear. It is raised up on one side, which might imply that it was hunched up, poised, you know, ready to spring upon its prey. It still has the ribs of its last victim in its jaws, and it is told to “rise and devour much flesh.” This kingdom likely represents the Medo-Persian Empire who were soon about to overthrow Belshazzar. Do you remember at the end of chapter 5? Darius replaces Belshazzar as the Persians sweep in and conquer Babylon in one night.
And then the third monster in verse 6 is like a leopard. It has four wings and four heads. Four wings to go in any direction of the four cardinal directions of the compass, and four heads to look wherever it desires. And Daniel says “dominion was given to him.” Probably this monster refers to the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great who, in a span of about thirty years, conquered most of the then-known world. And then in verse 7 there is a fourth monster. Daniel says it is unlike the others. We are given no likeness for this fourth beast which is probably a representative of the Roman Empire. We are told that it is terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It has iron teeth – did you see that – which means it can devour anything. And what it doesn’t eat, it tramples. It is profoundly destructive. And it has ten horns on its head. Horns in the Bible are symbols of royal power and strength. And so this kingdom has a multiplicity of strong men and power players that will arise out of it over time. Although as verse 8 will show us, one horn in particular will arise who will outstrip them all.
Now the chapter itself is going to dig into some of those details a little later, so we can afford to hold our fire on the details until then. For now, it’s important that we don’t miss the big picture. This is a description of the way the world will go, of the way the world always goes. The origins of these ungodly human powers is in the sea. That is, they are wicked and chaotic and opposed to the rule of God. And their features display their beastly, violent, destructive character. They consume whatever and whoever they want and the rest they destroy. And so we can understand Daniel’s feelings when he sees these nightmare visions, can’t we? He says, verse 7, the fourth beast was “terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong.” In verse 15, he says, “My spirit within me was anxious and the visions of my head alarmed me.” In verse 28 he adds, “As for me, my thoughts greatly alarmed me and my color changed.” This is horrifying.
And honestly, don’t we often feel like that as Christians as we look over the world all around us today. We don’t really need much persuading that the powers that be can be monstrous and beastly, do we? In Revelation 13, the apostle John echoes Daniel’s vision, only he sees a single beast arising out of the sea which displays, combined in itself, the attributes of each of these monsters – a leopard, a lion, a bear. And the point, I think, is that these are the common features of the monsters of human society wherever and whenever we meet them, whether in Daniel’s day or in John’s day or in our own day. Survey the history of the modern world and we see these monsters all over the place. Don’t we? We see brutality and abuse given cover by people in public office. We see genocide on an industrial scale. We see airplanes flying into the World Trade Center and cars driving into New Orleans’ partygoers. We see state police disappearing, political distance, and armed militias enforcing sharia law. We see invading armies and cyber attacks. We see natural disasters turned into political footballs in pursuit of electoral votes, and on and on and on it goes, all over the world.
Daniel’s vision is terrifying and dreadful and we’re not wrong to feel something of the same anxiety that the prophet experienced when he was confronted with a world where monsters live. For all that Daniel’s vision here on the surface at least is fantastical and painted in bizarre colors, a moment’s reflection really is all it takes to recognize it for the real-world red in tooth and claw in which we all live every single day.
But as we acknowledge that, we mustn’t miss one additional point about these four monsters. Did you notice the passive voice that is used over and over again in the description of each of them? The lion has his eagles’ wings plucked from him. He is made to stand like a man. For all his veracity, this is done to him. The bear is told to arise and devour. The leopard is given dominion. The snarling, growling ferocity of these devouring monsters is terrifying, but there is something quiet and unperturbed about those passive verbs. They tell us that for all the might and energy of human malice, no matter how dark, it is all on a leash in the end. There is one, as we are about to see, who limits and directs and overrules them all.
In John 19:11, when Pilate asked Jesus, “Do you not know that I have the authority to release you or to crucify you?” – do you remember what Jesus said in reply? “You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above.” “Suffering Babylonian exiles,” Daniel is saying, “life under Belshazzar is miserable. It is. And after him, the Medes and the Persians won’t be any better, nor the Greeks after them, nor the Romans, nor any other earthly power yet to come. They are all monstrous and beastly, destructive and devouring, chaotic and evil. But never lose sight, never lose sight of the God who reigns over all who has not, cannot abdicate His throne.”
Parents, don’t you find your hearts sometimes overtaken by fears about the world in which your children are growing up? You look at the political landscape and the educational environment and the digital world into which we all seem to be hardwired, you look at the values that are celebrated in our music and displayed for our entertainment, you look at the violence and the perversion all around you and it is easy, isn’t it, to fall into panic or despair. But these verbs here spoken in the passive voice, they echo the decree of the unperturbed God whose voice keeps the lion and the leopard and the bear and the fourth beast on their leash. These quiet verbs are saying to us, “Yes, yes, these beasts are terrible, they’re terrible, but for all their veracity, never lose sight of whose world this really is.”
Which brings us neatly to the second thing I want you to see here. Look down please at verses 9 through 14. This is a world where monsters live, but still there is a court where justice rules. Isn’t the abruptness of the interruption of verse 9 delightful? It breaks the mood of the chapter wonderfully. So far, verses 1 through 8 have conveyed only foreboding and horror. It’s a perp walk of one monster after another, paraded before our view until with Daniel, we begin to despair of a world overrun by nightmares. And then suddenly, verse 9, “I looked and thrones were placed and the Ancient of Days took his seat.” What a contrast. The lion and the bear and the eagle and the fourth beast, they’re all busy, aren’t they – frenetic, flying, biting, devouring. But where is God? And what is He doing? He’s not drawn into a game of cosmic whack-a-mole, is He, rushing in a divine tizzy hither and yon trying to deal with these monstrous intrusions into His world. No, no, He is seated in serenity upon His throne.
And keep reading. The contrast with the monsters in the first part of this vision builds. The beasts have vicious teeth and wings so that no one can evade them. The remains of their victims are in their mouths, but the one seated on the throne has clothes white as snow and hair like pure wool. These are symbols that teach us about His character. The monster, they are the vivid embodiment of malice and evil, but the Ancient of Days is dressed in pristine purity, and His white hair bespeaks perfect wisdom. Put more simply, the description is meant to teach us that He is good and He understands. When the monsters of this world rear their ugly heads and you begin with Daniel to tremble and your color changes, here are two truths to preach to your heart. When all you can see are nightmares, remind your fearful heart, “The Ancient of Days is dressed in purity, whiter than snow. He has the wool-white hair of true wisdom. Although I cannot always see it, my God is good. He is good and He knows, He understands. In His perfect wisdom, He does all things well.”
And look at His throne. Do you see His throne? In verse 9, it is all fire, wheels of fire, so there’s no place that His presence cannot go. Verse 10, there is a stream of fire issuing from before Him. Fire, as you probably know, often depicts the righteous, holy presence of God, especially in judgment. “Our God is a consuming fire,” Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29. The point is, that the wise and holy God sitting on His throne is seated there not to idle the hours away, daydreaming, indifferent to a world that is suffering. No, no, no. He is seated to deal with the monster of human wickedness and sin. He is seated here, isn’t He, as the cosmic Judge. That’s the scene that Daniel describes for us here so vividly. Look at it. “Hear ye, hear ye, the court of heaven is now in session! The Judge of all the earth, the Ancient of Days presiding. All rise!” And verse 10, “A thousand thousands served Him and ten thousand thousands stood before Him; the court sat in judgment and the books were opened.”
Most of us are not used to thinking of courtrooms as happy, positive places, so we might struggle to see why this vision is all that helpful for the suffering exiles of Babylon. But I rather suspect we only think that way because for the most part we are not victims of sustained injustice. But when at last, long, unaddressed evil finally meets its just reward and the wrong is righted, well then victims weep for joy, don’t they? We’ve seen them do it on our television screens, on the courtroom steps as the verdict on some twisted criminal is announced and justice is done. There is profound relief and a sense of rightness when justice is done. Of course there are some offenses that no human court of justice can ever adequately repay. Even when the courts are working as they should and the most fitting sentence we can imagine is handed down, even then there are some crimes where the victims express quite rightly a deep sense of the inadequacy of it all. All human justice, every human court is doomed to the imperfection of frail creatureliness, isn’t it? But Daniel is saying, “Rejoice, you suffering saints of God. Stand up and serve the Ancient of Days. You who have endured long injustice, there is a court where true justice reigns. There is a final tribunal where all evil will not, cannot wriggle free of its just deserts. Final justice will be done, and all the monsters of this world will meet their end.”
Which is exactly what happens in verses 11 and 12, isn’t it? Look at verses 11 and 12. Daniel looked away from the heavenly court just for a moment at the little horn and its arrogant boasts. “And as I looked,” he says, “the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. But as for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.” God deals with monstrous evil, apportioning His justice wisely as only He can, in His time and in His way. And not even the worst of the monsters can evade the sanction of the heavenly courtroom.
And don’t overlook the lovely visual – you can see it almost laid out for us in the way our Bibles are provided – look at the visual, the structure of this passage, that shows us something of the way God’s justice works. The defeat of the monsters in 11 and 12, it’s sandwiched between verses 9 and 10 on the one hand, where we have this vision of the Ancient of Days, and verses 13 and 14 on the other hand, where we see another glorious figure whom Daniel calls the Son of Man. We’ll think more about him in just a moment, but just let the shape of that passage sink in for a moment. Verses 11 and 12 take the threatening monsters of 1 through 8 and it squishes them in a vice in between the court of the Ancient of Days and the reigning Son of Man as though to remind us that this is the real context for the monsters of sin and wickedness in the world. They will not prevail because our God sits to judge justly and the Son of Man conquers all. They are quite literally hemmed in by that fact and there’s no escaping it.
Now the expression “Son of Man” that is used in verse 13 is vitally important, isn’t it? It leaves us in no doubt about the identity of this person in verses 13 and 14 who comes riding the clouds of heaven. You probably know that Son of Man was the Lord Jesus’ favorite name for Himself. Eighty-one times it is used in the Gospels. An especially jermaine example is Mark 14:61-62 where the high priest asks Jesus during His trial, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus answered, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.” He’s echoing Daniel chapter 7. He says, “This is who I am. That Son of Man that Daniel saw coming in the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of Days, that’s me.”
And look again carefully at the scene in verses 13 and 14. It’s almost as though Daniel had read the book of Acts and now takes up the narrative from where Luke left off in his account of the conclusion of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Do you remember the moment in Acts 1:9 where Jesus had finished instructing His disciples and Luke says, “As they were looking on, He was lifted up and a cloud took Him out of their sight.” The clouds take Jesus from this earthly scene and then Daniel takes up the story to show us the other side of that same event, that same moment as the ancient door, Psalm 24, the ancient doors of heaven are flung wide to receive the King of glory. Daniel here is seeing more than 500 years in advance the moment Paul describes in Philippians 2:9-11. Because Jesus had been obedient unto death, “even the death of the cross, therefore God highly exalted Him and has bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
When the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was televised in 1952 and broadcast all over the world, it was a radical, almost shocking thing. Establishment figures in Britain, like Winston Churchill, fiercely resisted the idea fearing that the televised coronation would cheapen the whole affair. Elizabeth, for her part, insisted. And so for the first time in history, many millions of ordinary people all over the globe got privileged access to the ancient splendor of a British monarch’s investiture as sovereign. This is a bit like that here in verses 13 and 14. We have front row seats with Daniel as the King of glory ascended in victory in triumphal procession enters the throne room itself, approaches the Ancient of Days, verse 14, to receive dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples and nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
Verses 13 and 14 give us an account of the ascended Christ’s coronation, His coronation. Now think about what that means for a moment. Right now, this morning, reigning at the right hand of the Ancient of Days, the Lord Jesus Christ sits enthroned, the exalted Son of Man, who loved you and gave Himself for you. The same Son of Man who said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many.” We have no access to kings and presidents, do we? We’re about to see our next president inaugurated and take his oath of office amidst all the ceremony of that state occasion, but likely most of us will never get to have a personal conversation with him, and if we did, we probably would not presume to bother him with the mundane details of our daily struggles. But beloved, the one sitting on the throne of the universe, crowned in splendor and majesty, He is one to whom we all may draw near. “Ask Me anything in My name,” John 14:14, “and I will do it.” The King, He cares about every detail, every single detail of your heart, your life; all your need, all your sin. He wants to redeem it all and He wants to hear you as you cry to Him. You can go to Him, go into the throne room yourself because of who He is to you. The King of glory is Jesus the Son of Man, the sin-bearing Savior who lives forever to make intercession for you. “Ask Me,” He says. “Ask Me. I’ll do it.” Take heart, you struggling exiles, trembling before the tyranny of a world where monsters live. Your Jesus sits on the throne. The Ancient of Days will have Him reign there until He makes all His enemies a footstool for His feet. Until then, you have His ear. You have His ear. Go to Him.
A world where monsters live. A court where justice reigns. And then very, very briefly, 15 through 28, a war where heaven wins. Daniel – I love this – he’s just seen the heavenly courtroom and the coronation of the Son of Man and what is Daniel’s question? “Could you tell me a bit more about those monsters?” Verse 16, he asks an angel for an explanation. He’s told the four monsters are four kings, but nevertheless, verse 18, “The saints of the Most High will possess the kingdom forever and ever.” I love the simplicity and clarity of verses 17 and 18. These visions are washing over Daniel, they are profound and perplexing. He doesn’t understand. He asks for help. And here’s the explanation of Daniel chapter 7. Crystal clear – evil is real, but the Church wins in the end. Isn’t that clear? That’s the point of Daniel chapter 7. Don’t get snarled up worrying about beasts and horns and time, times and half a time. Here’s the point. Don’t miss it. It’s such good news. Evil is real, but the Church triumphs. “I will build My Church,” Jesus says, “and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
Of course Daniel, curious, isn’t done. He’s especially interested in this fourth beast and its ten horns, and in particular this final, additional horn who rises up to supplant them. And so the ten horns, verse 24, are ten kingdoms that will arise after the fourth beast. The little horn will be the worst of the bunch. He will make war on the saints, verse 21. He will wear out the saints, verse 25. War and weariness sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it? Notice this little horn will even try to change the times in the law. That is to say, he will seek to usurp the rhythms of the created order and the content of the moral law established by God Himself. He wants to play God.
Who is he, this little horn? I believe he is our first glimpse of a shadowy figure who will reappear later in Daniel who is referred to by the apostle Paul as “the man of lawlessness” and by John as “the antiChrist.” But – and this is really important – Daniel’s point to us here is not to spook us all into paranoid predictions about the end of days. He’s not trying to keep us all glued to our TV screens and our news feeds in case the latest half-crazed, geopolitical strongman who likes to throw his armies where they don’t belong might fit the bill. Is this the antiChrist? That’s not the point. No, no. Daniel’s point is the one that he repeats in verse 18 and again in verse 22 and again in verse 27. These earthly kings, each succeeding the last, each expressing human rebellion against God until the climactic rebel, the antiChrist himself comes. They all flex their muscles and claim dominion but in the end, it is the saints of the Most High who possess the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven. That’s the message of Daniel chapter 7 – evil is real, but the Church wins.
And as we close, we need to grasp this one last point. The language of 18 and 22 and 27 about the saints gaining the kingdom is the same language that was used in 13 and 14 about the Son of Man who is given dominion and the kingdom from the Ancient of Days. How do we square that? The Son of Man has dominion and a kingdom. The saints of the Most High have dominion and a kingdom. How do you put that together? Here’s how you do it. We will reign because Jesus reigns. We are in Him if we are Christians, and so His victory shall become our victory. Paul writes to Timothy, “If we have died with Him, we shall live with Him. If we endure, we shall reign with Him.” We have no victory of our own. We can’t take the credit. No, all the praise will be His because what victory comes to us is really the extension of His victory who reigns over all. In a world where monsters live, there really is only one way for us to conduct ourselves. When we endure life in our own Babylonian exile, we have only one anchor of hope and confidence. We must trust in the Son of Man who died and rose and has ascended to glory to whom alone belongs the kingdom and the dominion.
While the monsters of human sin and rebellion make war against the saints and oppose the Ancient of Days and leave us world weary and tempted sometimes to despair, Daniel 7 was written to remind weary believers, exiles like us, who it is that still sits on the throne and to make us sing, “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun does its successive journeys run, His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moons shall wax and wane no more.” This is a world, it is a world where monsters live, but praise God there is a court where justice reigns. Ours is a warfare that heaven wins.
Let’s pray.
Lord, these are challenging passages yet full of rich truth. Help us in all our own world weariness, in our own conflict with the forces of darkness when the monsters of human wickedness rear their ugly heads in our life and in our nation and in our world, help us to remember who reigns, who reigns, that Jesus has not abdicated His throne, justice will be done, and the Church will triumph. Forgive us for losing sight of it, for doubting it, for trembling as though it were not true. Instead, help us to see the ascended, reigning Son of Man receiving His kingdom from the Ancient of Days and there, let us rest with joy, knowing that because He lives and reigns already, so certainly shall we. For Jesus’ sake, amen.