The Ancient Of Days (All Saints Day 2022)

THE ANCIENT OF DAYS

Text: Daniel 7:1- 3, 13 - 18

Daniel 7:1-18 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. (2) Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. (3) And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. ……. Dan 7:13- 18: I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. (14) And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (15) I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. (16) I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. (17) These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. (18) But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.

The Late Karl Barth once said that we have to “Take our Bible and our newspaper and read both. But, interpret you newspaper from your Bible”. (“Bath in retirement”Time, May 31,963.http://content.time.com/Time/subscriberarticle/0,330099,8986838,00html. The Bible tells us how we are to live in a world where God’s kingdom is in a battle with the kingdom of the world which is under the influence of the evil one. Apart from God, and His Word, any conclusions we draw will always be incomplete. Satan mixes truth with falsehood to pique our curiosity and emotion to distort, confuse, deceive, in order to kill, steal and destroy (John 8:44, John 10:10). 2 Corinthians 4:4 says “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (NIV). So how we live and what we believe determines our fear factor.

One of the main points of Daniel 7 is the activity of God---whom Daniel calls the Ancient of Days. He uses this title for God only in the book of Daniel three times (Daniel 7:9; 7:13; 7:22). The term Ancient of Days is a “Theophany---- [a] Manifestation of God that is tangible to the human senses”. . https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/theophany/ Daniel 7 tells us that the court is seated (Daniel 7:10) as the Son of Man (Jesus) approaches the Ancient of Days (God the Father) who will judge these four kingdoms represented by the four beasts!

Today we will talk about our faith, the four beasts, the Ancient of Days.

OUR FAITH

Have you ever had your faith tested by bad dreams? This is what happened to Daniel. In fact, Daniel’s dream seems more like a nightmare! He interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 but this dream was Daniel’s own dream in about the four beats in Daniel 7 troubled him (Daniel 7:15) that are tied to that statue in Daniel 2.

1) Nightmare: “According to the Oxford English Dictionary, nightmare derives from the Middle English (from the period 1150 to 1500) word ‘mare’, which meant a ‘female evil spirit thought to lie upon and suffocate sleepers’. ….. Some folk stories also have the supernatural creature riding a horse or even shapeshifting and taking on the form of animals. The prefix ‘night’ was later added emphasize that these demons visited at night, and over the centuries the term became generalized to refer to any frightening dream”. https://theculturetrip.com/europe/articles/the-creepy-origin-of-the-word-nightmare/ No doubt nightmare s can happen in such a way that it disturbs us so badly that it is hard to go back to sleep. Who hasn’t had a bad dream that they did not understand?

2) Not a random nightmare: What happened to Daniel was no random nightmare kind-of-a-dream. It was obviously a Divine message.

Does it surprise us to know that God spoke to Daniel through a dream?

“The Bible contains more than 50 references to dreams and visions in which God delivered messages. Abraham learned of his promised lineage through dreams and visions. Jacob's life was drastically changed through a series of dreams in which he received God's promises regarding his heritage. God revealed [Old Testament] Joseph's destiny through his dreams. Daniel, Obadiah, Nahum and Zechariah were among the prophets often visited with revelations from God through visions and dreams”. https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/58278-god-still-uses-dreams-to-speak-to-you-but-there-s-a-catch God spoke to New Testament Joseph about Mary’s pregnancy (Matthew 1:20 -24) and the wisemen through a dream about exited a different route because of Herod’s evil (Matthew 2:12).