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The Kirtllt,til o.l llrc' Promise: The Exilic Prophets

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The Ancient of Days

the theme of this book could well be represented in Daniel 2:44:

n the time of those [Gentile] kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms

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rever be destroyed, nor

,nd bring them to an end, but it

will itself endure forever.

lhus, God's sovereignty is seen in the abiding kingdom that God willeventually set fter the last of human empires and its leaders come to a decisive end, as determined iod himself.

The parallel of Nebuch'aflnezzar's rlrr..rrrr (l)lrrit'l 2) is Daniel's own vision in chapter 7. Again there were f6ul kingdoffis; ;rrr,l Nt,lrrrtlurtlrrczzar's head of gold, identified as Babylon in chapter 2, was feprese\t('(l lrlrc rts l)itrtit'l's "lion" (7:4).The earthly monarch's silver breast and arnrs in Darrit,l 2 lrcre sccln lo be aligned with Daniel's "bear"

)aniel prefers to use the more general name for God, 'elohim, restricting his use of rersonal name of Yahweh (= Lono) to his prayer in Daniel 9. In this way, Daniel
e the point that this Lord was not just the God of the fews, but he is God over all rations. Accordingly, he is called the "Most Holy [God]" (4:L7;5:18), the "God of i' (2:47), and the llord of kings" (2:47). God is in charge of all of history, and he rols it so that it terminates in the conclusion he has determined for history and not chosen by any human rulers for their own benefit.

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(v.5),later identified as the ram witlr twolrorns in Daniel 8:20-no less than Media and Persia. The belly xn4lfiighs ollrr';r*s or coppcr in Daniel 2 become, in Daniel T:6, a leopard with four heads 6nd four wirrlis. 'l'his is the same as Daniel's rough goat that grerv four little horns in Daniel 8:21 - 22, which was Alexander the Great of Greece and the four generals who succeeded hirn. Nebuchadnezzar's iron-and-clay-legged image become a terrible and indegcribably horrible beast in Daniel 7:7. This was a picture of a western or Roman empire, which linally was divided among ten kings plus a boastful antichrist (vv. 24- 25) who would subdue three of the ten kings and shout against the
Most High and wear out the saints o6 God for a designated period of time until God's everlasting kingdom would arrive (vv.25b -27). In Daniel Z the same forrr world empires appeared, only this time in succession out of the storm-laden sea. But again, when their time had expired and the ruler coming from among the ten horns of the fourth beast had done his worst against the God of heaven and his saints, ths'Ancient of Days" approached in judgment. Said Daniel in
verses t3 and 14:

Promised Kingdom's Success theology of Daniel is clearly set forth in antithesis to the successive kingdoms rmankind. In contrast to these kingdoms is the abiding but finally triumphant
dom of God that is central to Daniel's message. Daniel, another exile along with
:iel,3 looked beyond the catastrophe of |erusalem's collapse and the present demise e

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Davidic line to that abiding promised kingdom of God that would triumph over

re preserttly observed obstacles.

Stone and the Kingdom of God

dream of Nebuchadnezzar recorded in Daniel2 set the stage for this prophecy. 'e a colossal image was described, which was composed of four decreasingly valumetals. I'he statue is characterized by increasing weakness and division as one pros from head to toes. This image represented the human alternative to that "Stone" h fell on the feet of the colossus and crushed the whole image to pieces. After this, Stone" became a great kingdom that filled the whole earth. The "Stone" called to I Isaiah's "Cornerstone" (Isa 28:16), while the metals of the statue were clearly idenI as the four kingdoms, beginning with Babylon, followed by the split dominion of
o-Persia, Graeco-Macedonia, and the Roman or Western empires. 'he interpretation to this royal dream given in Daniel 2:44 was crystal clear:
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In rny vision at night l looked, and there before me was on like a son of rnan, coming with the clouds of heaven. He apprsn6hed the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authoritY, gloryln6 sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of
every language worshiped
pass away, and his

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Hi5 dominion is an everlasting

dominion that will not

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will never

be destroyed.

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In the

God will set up

kingdom that will never be destroyed, that will endure forever.

e to defend the case for a sixth-century ough extremely unpopular with biblill be pressed on evidential, not doctriarguments of my colleague Gleason L.

Archer Jr., A Survey of OId Testament Introduction, rev. ed.

(Chicago: Moody Press, 1974), 377 he cites there.

403, and the

bibliography

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a human Mediator came from the Most High God, whose counteqsn6e and person immediately called to mind Ezekiel's and Isaiah's visions. fhus thessming Messiah would not only be the true David, but he would also be the true Son of 14nn,a combininli in his person the high calling of humanity and the position feserved alone for Gorl. I lis heavenly origin was stressed in that he would come "with the cloud5 of hcavcn" (7:l l, which is more explicit than the falling stone of 2:34), and his divinity was urrrlt'r'st rrrlrl b)r the abiding and indestructible kingdom and dominion that va.s givt'rr lo 1t1111 (/ l4).

In contrast to the beastl)' nature of human empires,

Those r+'orld powers, goVerned by t lrlrl nrix

featu11.1;,

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,,,rvage, sensuous, and

self-serving

impulses, grim with distorted lrol rrs, lccllr, rrrrtl carnivorous appetites, would now confront God's judgmefit as tht 4111 icrrt oI t ),tlq 1,,, rk his seat in the heavenly court.

The Law

4. See E. f. Young,'Daniel's yis;pn of theSott ol Nlrtt," ll and the Prophets,ed. ;. Skllton (Nuthy, Nf : I'trrl,yl,