A year or so ago my son introduced me to a type of music called ska. I had no idea what it was, but after I heard it, I liked it. It sounds a little like big band music, a little like Latino music, lots of horns mixed in with guitars and drums. Some of it is fast, and some of it is slow. It’s different.
One of the ska tapes I got is called Skalleluia! It’s Christian ska by a group called the Insyderz. One of the songs on the tape is called Ancient of Days. I want to read you the words: Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto the Ancient of Days. From every nation, all of creation will bow before the Ancient of Days. Every tongue in heaven and earth will declare your glory. Every knee shall bow at our throne and worship. You will be exalted, oh God, and your kingdom shall not pass away, oh, Ancient of Days. Your kingdom shall reign over all the earth. Sing unto the Ancient of Days. For none can compare to your matchless worth. Sing unto the Ancient of Days.
The term "Ancient of Days" is one I had heard before. I knew it meant God, but I really didn’t know any more about it until I got to today’s scripture. This passage from Daniel tells about, and actually describes, the Ancient of Days.
The book of Daniel contains two types of literature. One is history, and the other is prophecy. Daniel has visions of the future, and today’s scripture is from one of those visions.
The scene in Daniel is one of the end times. It starts out with Daniel seeing four great beasts, each representing a world empire. These nations, which would reign over Israel, were evil and cruel, but as the vision progresses, Daniel sees God’s everlasting, indestructible kingdom arrive and conquer them all.
When God first appears, thrones are being set up. Verse 9 reads, "As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat." We don’t know why the word thrones is plural. Apparently there was more than one throne set up, but we’re never told who else is going to sit in them besides God.
Then comes the description of God. This is the only detailed description of God in the whole Bible, and we’re still left with a lot of unanswered questions. It says that his clothing was as white as snow, but it doesn’t say what kind of clothing it is. I’ve always pictured God as wearing white robes similar to the ones we see people wearing in all the Jesus movies. But I guess he could just as easily be wearing a white leisure suit, or white jeans and a white t-shirt. Who knows? And does it really matter?
God’s hair is said to be white like wool. We’re not told whether his hair is long or short, styled or growing wild, tied up in a ponytail or hanging loose. Just that it’s white like wool. God’s hair is described in a similar manner in Revelation 1:14: "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire."
I’ve often wondered about the term, Ancient of Days. When I hear it, I think of someone who’s old beyond imagining. I always thought that the Ancient of Days had been around since the beginning of time. Or even before that. It’s hard for our human brains to grasp the idea of God existing even before the beginning of time. That something might have existed before there was anything is an extremely hard concept for us to get hold of.
Even more difficult is the idea that not only did God exist before time, but he’s going to exist even after time has ceased. I think that’s the true meaning of Ancient of Days. It’s a term that’s been given to our God, who has existed before time and who will continue to exist after time. That again is more than our brains can fathom. Just thinking about it is enough to give me a headache.
In Daniel’s vision, it’s God’s throne that’s blazing. This throne has wheels on it, and they were on fire. You’ll remember that Ezekiel also had visions of wheels. His vision contained images of four creatures, and on the ground beside each creature was a wheel, which sparkled "like chrysolite." The wheels are supposed to indicate to us that God is able to move anywhere and be anywhere at any time.
Verse 10 says that a river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. This river is also mentioned in Psalm 50, verse 3, which reads, "Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages." This fire represents God’s judgment upon humanity. The fire will devour those who are to be punished, and afterwards everything will be cleansed.
Around God’s throne are people. And not just a few, either. It says that thousands upon thousands attended him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. Well, I couldn’t help but do the math on this one, and the numbers are impressive. First you’ve got thousands upon thousands. That could be any number at all, but if assume that it’s a thousand times a thousand, that right there is a million. Then you have the ten thousand times ten thousand. That’s a hundred million. So the number of people standing before the throne of God is mind-boggling.
Then we’re told that the court was seated. We don’t know who this court is made up of, or really anything about them at all. Apparently, they’re the ones that the other thrones were set up for, so they must be very important. But we’re not even told how many of them there are.
When they sit, some books are opened. We talked about books last week, and this is another reference to the same ones. One of them would be the Book of Life. These are the books full of names, and whether or not one’s name is in these books determines where that person will spend eternity. The scripture doesn’t say anything about them reading from the books, or who was in them. It just says they were opened.
After we get this image of God and his court seated on thrones with millions of people hanging around, we’re introduced to another key figure in Daniel’s vision. This person is described as "one like a son of man." We’re all familiar with this term. It was Jesus’ favorite way of referring to himself. At Matthew 8, verse 20, Jesus says, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
And coupled with this reference to the Son of Man is the idea that when he comes, it will be with the clouds of heaven.
At Matthew 26:64, Jesus says, "In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Luke 21, verse 7, reads, "At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."
And at John 1, verse 51, Jesus tells his disciples, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
At Revelation 1, verse 7, we’re told, "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him."
The clouds of heaven portray the Son of Man as divine. Throughout the Bible clouds represent his majesty and awesome presence. Clouds also represent God, and we can read at Exodus 16, verse 10, that "while Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud." God actually appeared in a cloud to the people while he was leading them through the desert.
At Exodus 19, verse 9, God tells Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud." Exodus 24, verses 15 and 16 say that "When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai." So when we read of the Son of Man coming in a cloud, we know that all the glory of God surrounds him.
The one like a son of man in Daniel’s vision is, of course, the Messiah. And when the Messiah gets to the throne room, he’s immediately led into God’s presence. At this time, he’s given authority, glory, and sovereign power over all people everywhere. All nations and people of every language are going to worship this Messiah.
This is also written in Psalm 72. We can read at verse 11, "All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him."
And the Messiah’s dominion is going to last forever. It will never pass away, and "his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." We can read more about this kingdom at Hebrews chapter 12, verse 28, "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe."
Eventually the world will crumble, and only God’s kingdom will last. Those who follow Christ are part of this unshakable kingdom, and they’ll withstand the shaking, sifting, and burning that’s going to come. When we begin to feel unsure about the future, as I’m sure we all do from time to time, we can take comfort from these verses. No matter what happens here, our future is built on a solid foundation that can’t be destroyed.
Well, this vision of Daniel’s is a fitting study for us today. After all, next week begins Advent, the time when we all celebrate the coming of Christ. Today’s scripture is a prophecy about that coming. It’s not quite like the prophecy that we read in Isaiah about the child being born, and how he’ll suffer and take on the sins of the world.
This prophecy in Daniel talks about the Messiah coming at the end of the world. Judgment day has arrived, and God is ready to mete out reward and punishment as he sees fit. The Son of Man arrives in all his glory, and he’s given authority over every living thing.
The stories that we’ll read at Christmas will tell about Jesus’ birth and how he’s coming to establish a kingdom. Daniel’s vision tells of that kingdom and how it’s already been established, and how that kingdom is one that’s never going to be destroyed.
In the coming weeks, we’ll read all the stories that we love about Mary and Joseph, the angels singing and kings coming and the birth of Baby Jesus. After Christmas, we’ll probably think, wasn’t that nice? Weren’t the holidays fun? I’m always so glad to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. And we’ll go on about our business until Easter time, when we start to learn how Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected.
But we’ll probably give little thought to the end of time. The Ancient of Days won’t fit in with our holiday festivities very well, so we don’t need to spend much time thinking about the beginning of time or the end of time.
The everlasting dominion of the Son of Man is not a theme that you can decorate for very well, so we’ll just decorate for the tiny baby lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, surrounded by all the farm animals.
Christ coming in the clouds in all his glory doesn’t blend with the Christmas scene, so we’ll be thinking of Baby Jesus being born of a beautiful virgin girl on a cold, dark night in a stable in Bethlehem.
God and his court seated on thrones opening the Books of Life isn’t a traditional Christmas theme, so we’ll just picture our benevolent, kindly, loving Father sending down his own son to live with us as human.
When we celebrate the holiday season, we don’t usually think of a river of fire coming out from before God, burning up the chaff and destroying sinners for all time. We usually think of trees and presents and food and family. Good times. Pleasant thoughts. Warm fuzzies.
But maybe that’s not what we need to be thinking about. Of course, we can have the trees and presents and stuff, but we need to focus on what’s really important this holiday season.
As Daniel’s vision tells us, there’s going to come a time when we’ll be among the hundreds of millions of people standing before God’s throne. We’ll be the ones hoping that our name is in the right book. We’re going to be praying that we’re not consumed by the river of fire, but instead that we’re allowed to see the Son of Man approaching in the clouds of heaven.
I want to be there when Christ is led into the presence of the Ancient of Days. I want to be there when the Son of Man is given all authority over every living thing. I want to be a part of his kingdom, the kingdom that will never be destroyed. I know, deep in my heart, that you all want the same thing.
In order for that to happen, we have to be able to stand before the throne of God when the books are being opened. We have to get our names in the Book of Life. We have to be able to stand in the presence of the Ancient of Days. And in order to be able to stand in the present of the Ancient of Days when the end times come, what we have to do now is what that song I read you tells us to do: bow before the Ancient of Days.
Let’s bow before him now.
