Kingdom Bible Study 12
During the time when Israel and Judah were
captive in Babylon, one of the captives was a boy named Daniel. In the book of
Daniel we read about Daniel’s life and how, as he grew, the Lord enabled him to
find favour in the eyes of King Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord used Daniel to bring
His message to the Babylonian peoples as well as to prophesy to the people of
Israel and Judah.
Like the writings of the other prophets, Daniel’s
writings are of central importance in understanding how God’s covenants will be
fulfilled, particularly because the notion of God’s kingdom is made more
explicit here than in any of the other prophets. There is a further reason why
Daniel’s prophecies are especially important for this study. In the following
Bible studies we shall be seeking to understand some of the conditions of first
century Palestine. However, in order to understand anything about Jews in first
century A.D. one must understand the prophecies of Daniel in which these people
were saturated.
In the seventh Bible study of Daniel we read
about a dream Daniel was given. The dream describes the various empires that
will arise on the earth. These kingdoms will perform deeds of great wickedness.
They will persecute God’s people and make war against the saints of the Most
High. Then the great Ancient of Days will appear to judge these dominions and
establish His own kingdom. Daniel describes a great law court scene in which
the Most High takes away dominion from those who have persecuted His people and
gives dominion to His people by establishing them in positions of rulership in
His age-abiding kingdom.
“I was watching; and the same horn was making
war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days
came, and a judgment was made in favour
of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the
kingdom …” (Dan. 7:21-22).
“But the court shall be
seated,
And they shall take away his
dominion,
To consume and destroy it
forever.
Then the kingdom and
dominion,
And the greatness of the
kingdoms under the whole heaven,
Shall be given to the
people,
The saints of the Most High.
His kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom
And all dominions shall
serve and obey Him.
(Dan. 7: 26-27)
As we see here, God’s people will not only be
vindicated from their evil oppressors when the Messiah takes dominion of the
world, but the Messiah will actually rule the earth through His people. The
greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall actually be given to
God’s people to rule! (The name ‘Israel’ actually means ‘ruling with God’ or
‘Prince with God.’) That must have given the descendants of Abraham tremendous
hope. It is also what they must have expected as a necessary consequence of
their God being supreme. As we saw in Bible study nine, God proves His heavenly
supremacy by giving His people earthly supremacy.
Let us read further in verses 13-14 of the same
Bible study:
I was watching in the night
visions,
And behold, One like the
Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of
heaven!
He came to the Ancient of
Days,
And they brought Him near
before Him.
Then 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 the one
Which shall not be
destroyed.
The hope of the Jewish and Israelite peoples
were placed in these words. It was a hope they held onto in the face of extreme
persecution and adversity. It was more than merely a hope to return from their
Babylonian exile - it represented the hope for an entirely new age of world
history, an age in which truth and justice would be established throughout all
the earth, an age in which those who had formerly been persecuted and
downtrodden would rise in stature and power.
In the ninth Bible study of Daniel we find
Daniel interceding on behalf of his kinsmen. At verse 16 the tone changes and
Daniel begins asking for the Lord’s mercy, pleading that He will forgive His
wayward people and restore them to their land.
“Oh Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen
and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are
called by Your name.” (Dan. 9:19)
Daniel
then tells how he was visited by the angel Gabriel who was sent forth “to give
you skill to understand” (Dan. 9: 22). Gabriel tells Daniel exactly how much
time must elapse between the command to rebuild Jerusalem and the coming of the
Messiah. Thus we come to the famous prophecy about the seventy “weeks” (Dan.
9:24-27). There are many different ways this prophecy has been calculated, and
they need not concern us here. What I would like to draw our attention to is
that in the midst of this wonderful prophecy, there is the following enigmatic
statement: “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for
Himself” (Dan. 9:26) followed by a description of many evils that are to occur.
These evils occur for a fixed duration until the time appointed for
consummation to be poured out upon the desolate (Dan. 9:26-27). The strange
thing is that these evils are said to occur after the appearance of the
Messiah. The reason this is strange is because the whole testimony of the
prophets seemed to suggest that the appearance of the Messiah would put an end
to evil. And what about these strange words concerning the Messiah being “cut
off’”?
Related
to this are Isaiah’s equally puzzling words about the suffering servant who is
also “cut off” from the land of the living (See Isa. 53:8). The entire
fifty-third Bible study of Isaiah, which speaks about the suffering servant, is
directly preceded by a prophecy about the redemption of Jerusalem, while
directly following it is a joyful description of the new covenant. As with
Daniel’s prophecies, the concept of a suffering Messiah seems strangely out of
place and yet intricately bound up with the glories of the Messianic era.
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