GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
DANIEL 7:15-18
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15 “I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit and in the flesh, and the visions in my mind terrified me. 16 I approached one of those standing there and asked him the truth about all of this. So he spoke to me and let me know the meaning of these things: 17 ‘Those great beasts, the four of them, are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth. 18 But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever– yes, for ever and ever.’
Daniel shows the reality of receiving a vision from God. It came at a cost to the one receiving it: Daniel was troubled deep down, and even terrified by what he saw. He needed time to sort it all out, but in the moment he was very afraid. He says that he was troubled in his spirit– this much is clear and certain to translators. But then he adds something that is not so clear. He uses the phrase bago nidneh, “in the midst of (my) sheath.” What does this mean? One commentator says that these are “two Aramaic words which caused a problem even for the early translators.” In the Jerusalem Bible translation there is a note: “Two incomprehensible Aramaic words are omitted here as in the Greek and (Latin) Vulgate.” The term “sheath” is confirmed by its use in 1 Chronicles 21:27, “The angel put his sword back into its sheath.” If we take the word in its context, then it isn’t difficult to see that the sheath when coupled with the spirit would be the body or the flesh. Therefore I have translated “in spirit and in the flesh.” Daniel’s whole being, body and soul, was troubled by this vision.
Daniel does something within the context of the vision that might not occur to many people. He goes over to one of the angels that he sees in the vision and asks him a question: What is the true meaning of all this? While the vision is of something in the distant future (Judgment Day), it occurs to Daniel not simply to watch, but to interact. We see this behavior only in a few of the prophets, such as Amos (Amos 7:1-5) and John (Revelation 7:11-15). Perhaps Saul’s (Paul’s) words in Acts 9:5 could also be added here. I bow before the intellect of such men, and before their faith. It would not have occurred to me to step into the vision as it were, and ask a question outside of asking God through prayer. O Lord, increase my faith! (Luke 17:5).
The angel communicates with the prophet. Some skeptics like the Scholastics in Reformation times questioned how angels would communicate with one another. They assume no need for speech, and perhaps wondered about the organ for speech in a creature that is spirit and not flesh. Modern skeptics (there are many online skeptics disguised as influencers) deny that angels speak with voices at all. But the prophet couldn’t have put it plainer than he does: “The angel spoke to me.”
The angel’s first point is that “Those great beasts, the four of them, are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth.” That is to say, they are not spiritual or supernatural enemies of God nor of his church, but physical, earthly, and historical kingdoms. Without naming them, the angel agrees this far with our interpretation that they are Babylon (which was also confirmed by the Holy Spirit through this prophet, Daniel 2:36), followed by Persia, Greece, and Rome; more dangerous than any lion, bear, leopard, or any other savage beast, and each one able to make a breakfast of an unsuspecting believer. In ancient times, this confirmation by the angel was challenged by early millennialists. To them, Jerome (died in 420) said, “The four kingdoms of which we have spoken above were earthly in character. ‘For everything which is of the earth shall return to earth’ (Ecclesiastes 3:20). But the saints shall never possess an earthly kingdom, but only a heavenly. Away, then, with the fable about a millennium!”
Poor Daniel is attacked even today and sometimes even from within the church, just as Moses and Paul are, and of course as Jesus himself is. They question why Daniel would have paid so much attention to the fourth kingdom since he was living at the time under the first, and so should he not have been most interested in Babylon and its kings? And they assault the Holy Spirit with these words the same way they assault the Holy Spirit forbidding women to have spiritual and doctrinal authority over men, which is what he has handed down to us (1 Corinthians 14:34-35; 1 Timothy 2:11-14), not just for some but for “all the churches, for God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). But doubt and spite and venom are formed in gullets of all mankind, and tempted by the devil we can all slip into questioning the Lord. And as one of my sainted Professors said to us in the classroom about this very subject, “When you have to have a big discussion about something, it’s usually because someone wants to get around God’s Word.”
What does Daniel mean when he says, “the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom forever”? Here it is simply enough to quote from Doctor Luther’s Large Catechism: “What is the kingdom of God? Simply what we learned in the Creed, that God sent his Son, Christ our Lord, into the world to redeem and deliver us from the power of the devil and to bring us to himself and rule us as a king of righteousness, life, and salvation against sin, death, and an evil conscience. To this end he gave us his Holy Spirit to teach us this through the holy Word and to enlighten and strengthen us in faith by his power” (Second Petition, LC §III:51). In other words, the kingdom of God is not an earthly kingdom with borders, walls, flags, armies, and such, but it is God gathering his people through the Gospel to create, strengthen and preserve our faith in this lifetime, and to bring us through the ordeal of death by means of the resurrection and give to us the glory of eternal life, which we will possess forever on account of Christ.
And Daniel assures us that this inheritance belongs to all believers by saying that “the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom.” “Saints” (qodish) occurs many times in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms (16:3; 149:9, and many other times) and many more in the New Testament. This is the first of seven occurrences in Daniel. It simply means “holy ones.” Saints in the sense the Scripture gives are all believers who have faith in Christ (Jude 1:3). They are living on earth and worship God together: “May your saints rejoice in your goodness” (2 Chronicles 6:41). They are often persecuted (Acts 9:13) or poor (Romans 15:26). Christian churches can and are rightly called “congregations of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:33; Philemon 1:5). And here Daniel assures us that all of the saints, not just some of them, receive the kingdom of God, for he passes it out to all just like Jesus passing out fishes and loaves to thousands upon thousands as if from nothing at all, but simply by the power of his word and according to his divine will (John 6:9-11). And as the Fathers of the church have understood, believed, and taught, even long before our Lutheran Reformation, “Believe that through God your sins are forgiven. This is the witness that the Holy Spirit brings in your heart, saying, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ For thus the Apostle Paul concludes, that a man is justified freely by grace. We can be sure of the forgiveness of sins, that faith encourages our hearts, and the Holy Spirit grants us peace.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Daniel 7:15-18 The angel explains