How do they keep going?
Christian parents in Iraq told that their children will be executed if they don’t renounce their faith. How do they keep living for Christ at that moment?
The lady in this area, who becomes a Christian. Goes home, and tells her husband. He didn’t mind her going to church, but he doesn’t want her taking it this seriously, he says. How does she keep going?
How do any of us keep going? Christian beliefs look increasingly ridiculous in modern society. If you believe in traditional marriage, if you believe that Jesus is utterly unique, that the only way to be saved for all eternity is to trust him, you will be laughed at.
How do we keep living for Christ when others don’t approve, and make sure we know it?
These are pressures with which the book of Daniel is very familiar. It’s what makes it such a relevant book for our day and age.
A bit of background. The people of Israel had lived in their land for 850 years. But they had been rebellious. They hadn’t been faithful to God. So, after many warnings, God sent the Babylonian army in. The city of Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. The people became subjects in the growing Babylonian empire. And the nobility were deported to Babylon. Which, as it happens, is in modern Iraq.
Daniel is one of the people deported, as are his 3 friends with unpronounceable names. They find themselves in exile, in a foreign country, with a different culture, surrounded by other religions.
The book opens with a dramatic story that sets the scene. Will Babylon, with its culture and values, quite literally eat the Jewish exiles for breakfast? Will they swallow Babylon – hook, line and sinker, and just assimilate. Or will they remain distinctive as the Lord’s people.
Then we get 5 chapters of famous stories. The lions’ den, and all that. Daniel and his friends have confidence that God is in charge. He’s in charge, even in a foreign country where he’s not recognised. So they refuse to compromise, even though the price is enormous.
In the centuries that followed, the Jewish people were often harshly persecuted. About 400 years after Daniel came the Greek king, Antiochus IV; he was the cruellest of the lot. These stories were a great comfort for the Jews in those dark years. How fortifying to read of Daniel and his friends, holding their nerve, remaining loyal to the one true God, confident that he reigns even when foreign powers have no regard for him.
Then comes the second half of the book. God draws back the curtain on human history. Daniel has a series of visions and dreams, to show him what God’s doing behind the scenes. They’re designed to boost our confidence that God really is in control. So that, like Daniel and his friends, we find the strength to live for God, without a hint of compromise.
Chapter 7 is the first of these visions. It shows Jesus Christ as the one in charge of human history. Daniel lived 550 years too early to put it like that. But we can be sure that Jesus saw this chapter as speaking of him. He alluded to it several times. This chapter is about Jesus, and his reign, in charge of human history.
To strengthen us, living for Jesus without compromise in our own day, this chapter says three things about the reign of Jesus.
Jesus reigns as one of us
First, Jesus reigns as one of us. Jesus reigns as one of us.
Daniel’s vision is of 4 successive world empires. Each is likened to an animal. Babylon the lion, Media the bear, Persia the leopard.
And then we get Greece. Greece is depicted like a monster. Verse 7: Terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crush and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. A cross between Godzilla and the villain Jaws from James Bond. Only substantially more terrifying.
One of the beast’s horns depicts a particular king from the Greek empire. He will be especially arrogant when it comes to oppressing God’s people.
Then the vision is suddenly interrupted with judgement day. God the Father sits on his throne. It’s a visually dramatic scene. The throne looks like it’s made of molten lava. God’s clothing and hair are hard to look at, they’re so white. And he’s surrounded by courtiers. 100 million of them.
The first 3 empires had already been destroyed. God passes sentence on Greece, and then comes the new ruler to take Greece’s place.
Verse 13: In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power.
The previous rulers were depicted by animals. This one is human.
God’s plan has always been to have human beings rule the world. We are his representatives, to care for the earth. Sadly, we chose to live for ourselves. Our rules are no different. Since the Garden of Eden, human leaders have been tyrants. More animal than human.
It’s what George Orwell describes in his book Animal Farm. Instead of two-legged humans ruling the world as God would do, we’re ruled by humans who resemble four-legged animals.
God never abandoned his plan. After the Greek monster, things are restored to how they should be. A human being is put in charge. And we know that human being is Jesus.
But Jesus is more than just a human. He’s the human. He’s there, running the world, on our behalf. He reigns as one of us. As God explains the vision to Daniel, he describes it differently. It’s not just the son of man who rules. It’s God’s holy people. We, the people of God, are put in charge. But we do so through our representative. Jesus reigns as one of us.
Perhaps it helps to talk about the General Election. If the party you support ends up in power, it feels good. “Our man is in office,” you think to yourself. “Our needs will be looked after. We’re running the country.” You don’t go to cabinet meetings. Not yourself. The point is that the people who do are there to represent you
It’s the opposite of how it feels to live as a Christian in Iraq or Syria today. It doesn’t feel at all as if the people in government are on your side, one of you. It’s the opposite to how it felt to be Daniel and his 3 friends. You look at those in authority, those in government, those who can make your life miserable if they choose to — and they aren’t representing you, one of you.
Which is why Daniel needed this vision. And it’s why we need this vision. Jesus runs the world. Which means that, as Christians, we are the ones in power. We are running the world. Our man is not in Havana. Our man is in Heaven. So our needs will be looked after by the powers that be. Things will work out for us.
Jesus reigns as one of us.
Jesus reigns over every nation
Second, Jesus reigns over every nation.
This couldn’t be clearer in Daniel 7, could it? Verse 14: He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshipped him. Even more glorious is verse 27: Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.
Does this remind you of passages in the New Testament?
The end of Matthew’s gospel, chapter 28, verse 18: Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’
Acts chapter 1, verse 8: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Or Revelation chapter 7, verse 9: After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
We’ll leave Revelation 20 alone for now. Here is the reign of Jesus according to Daniel 7, and according to the New Testament. It’s absolutely glorious: Jesus reigns over every nation.
Here’s what this means. Suppose you try to make a list of big world superpowers, in date order. There are lots of ways to do it because the world is a big place, but you might compile a list like this: Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Ottoman-Turk, Great Britain, United States of America, China.
Daniel 7 says that this is not how the list goes. The first 4 were right. In order, Babylon, Media, Persia and Greece built huge empires, were the local world superpowers of their day. But after Greece comes the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Since then, he’s been in charge of every nation.
Jesus said that his kingdom was not of this world. He did not mean that he is not in charge of any earthly nation. Since his ascension, he has been in charge of every nation. Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world; his is not just one nation amongst many. There are no geographical borders where the kingdom of Jesus Christ ends. His kingdom spans the whole world, shore to shore, pole to pole.
Jesus reigns over every nation.
When we woke up last Friday morning, we learnt that the Prime Minister of Great Britain was the same man who was in post two days previously. And, no, I’m not talking about David Cameron. I’m talking about Jesus Christ. He was Prime Minister, the leading servant of this nation, before the election, and he was still in post after the election. We can talk about David Cameron if you want. He is simply a junior minister in Jesus’ government.
You may know the story of Queen Victoria. She is reputed to have said this about the second coming of Christ: “I wish he would come during my lifetime, so that I could take my crown and lay it at his feet.”
Jesus reigns over every nation.
Jesus reigns for all time
And then, third: Jesus reigns for all time. Jesus reigns for all time.
We’ve already picked this up, but let’s just see it in the text. Verse 14: His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. Verse 18: The holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it for ever – yes, for ever and ever. Got it? Forever. Verse 27: His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.
Which is what Jesus said, isn’t it? Matthew chapter 28, verse 17: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Verse 20: Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
1 Corinthians 15, verse 25: For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Jesus must reign. And he’ll go on doing so until death itself is destroyed.
This is something we’re not used to. Empires rise, and empires fall. Communism grew in popularity, spreading across Eastern Europe. Communism collapsed. We all know that the United States won’t remain a world superpower forever. If you know enough history, you know the pendulum keeps swinging. It’s the same with political parties: In power, out of power, back in power again, and so it goes on.
But not so with Jesus. The pendulum will never swing back. Jesus is in government. He’s here to stay.
Jesus reigns for all time.
Conclusion
So, how do they keep going? How do you keep going?
You won’t, if you have too small a view of Jesus.
We need our confidence restoring that Jesus rules. As one of us. Over every nation. Forever.
Not everyone recognises this, of course. But one day Jesus will return from heaven. And when he does, every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.