Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the Daily Challenges. Yesterday we read a dream from the Book of Daniel that would have given great hope to the people of God who were living in exile, having lost their land, their temple, their self-government and even their ability to worship God in peace.
Yesterday, we read the part that would have given them some hope, where God is in his court sitting on his throne, and destroys one of the beasts that represented Israel’s lost independence and hope, then takes away the others’ power. That power is then given to another, in this part of the dream:
“I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And 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 one
that shall not be destroyed.
(Daniel 7:13-14 ESV)
Someone “like a son of man” appears. Have you heard this before?
Just last week, we learned about a story in the Book of Daniel where three faithful men were put into a fiery furnace to die for their fiath. When the king looked inside, however, they were still alive and he saw a fourth man in the furnace – one he described as “like a son of the gods” or a “son of man”.
Literal translation is a human being, or one in human likeness. It sounds like someone who appears to be a man, or is a man, but that it can’t be stated so simply because this is somehow surprising and unexpected. Like if God came to earth in human form…he’s human, but…he’s God!
Last week, we also learned about how Jesus called himself this, quite regularly, and was called the son of man by others. He was God, in human flesh, and he wanted people to look back at the Book of Daniel and see him there. He was the son of man, as promised, establishing his eternal kingdom.
We’ll learn how, tomorrow.
Question: Draw the scene from this week’s readings, either on paper, an iPad or in your mind. What emotions does this evoke in you? Where are you, relative to this scene? What does Jesus do for you?