“God Most High – Ancient of Days” Daniel 7:1-12

“God Most High – Ancient of Days” Daniel 7:1-12

An Expositional Sermon
Have you seen a picture of the earth from outer space? It’s amazing to see the entire world captured in one image. But when you zoom in, you see hemispheres, continents, nations, states, cities, families, and individual people. Sometimes it can be helpful to zoom out a bit to get some perspective. We can get bogged down on details “missing the forest for the trees”; we can quickly forget the big picture. As we look at the image of the earth from a distance, the big picture gives us a different perspective than if we are looking at a little plot of land. That little piece of land is part of a bigger whole. That’s what God is doing in Daniel 7. One theologian has described this chapter as the, “perspective from God of the grand vision of history.” [1] God revealed this vision to Daniel to comfort His people, both the Jews in exile during Daniel’s day, but also us, as we are walking in the wilderness of this broken and fallen world. What is our hope? Is God going to do nothing to stop the injustice and suffering that seems so pervasive? In the face of the suffering of God’s people in so many places, is there any hope in this world? How can we persevere. Our hope is in God, that we can face the fires of this world, even as many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have been burned at the stake for their faith in the past and even as other groups are actively seeking to do this today, we can face these things because we know that God’s kingdom is eternal. God’s people in Daniel’s day were facing the same persecutions. So where is comfort? Will God keep His promises to His people to save them? Where is hope in the darkest of times? It is in the grand vision of history that will culminate in the final judgment of God, where wickedness will finally be held to account.

[1] Greidanus, Sidney Preaching Christ from Daniel, Foundations for Expository Sermons (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012), 201, 234.