Theophany: In the Heavenly Courtroom with Daniel
Theophany: In the Heavenly Courtroom with Daniel.
Theophany: From the Greek words “Theo” (God) and “phaino” (to appear). So a theophany is when God makes a temporary appearance on earth for reasons of His own. A theophany is God’s temporary visible manifestation to remind us of His permanent presence in the world. A theophany is when God stoops to us in gracious self-revelation in a form that we can experience through our senses. Theophanies, though, are preliminary, because they anticipate the ultimate theophany in the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Theophanies in the Hebrew Bible were God’s temporary appearances, but in Jesus we see the fulfillment of theophany, a permanent appearance of God on earth.
Glory: the weighty splendor of God’s personal presence. God dwells in glory, He is comprised of glory, and so when God makes an appearance on earth, glory is revealed. The sheer weight of God’s presence, His spiritual girth, outweighs the world; His splendorous presence is more substantive and heavier than the universe.
“I kept looking until other seats were placed, and the Ancient of Days took His seat, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was like the fiery flame, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire came forth from before Him; angels numbering a thousand thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand rose up and stood before Him; the Judge was seated – the court was in session – and the books were opened.” (Daniel 7:9-10).
Theophany of the Ancient of Days. We know our God is ageless, in that He has no age and is an eternal Being. Our Lord exists from everlasting to everlasting (Ps. 90:2). He just always is. He always has been. He always will be. God has no beginning, no birthdate. He will never have an end date.
CityAlight – Ancient of Days (Live)
The Timeless One. When I was in elementary school, just for kicks I tried to imagine what it was like to have no beginning. I would time-travel in my mind back to creation, then wonder what was before that, then before that, then before that. I think that’s as far as I got. The eternality of God is a wondrous mystery way beyond our temporal minds. To think that He somehow came from a dimension outside of time, then created time itself. He appeared from His own world, a place without past, present or future. A place with no chronology, no measurements in time like seconds and centuries. God somehow had the idea of time within His limitless imagination, and remained a timeless Being. He invented the reality of time and then entered into it, a different reality altogether. God is not merely a really, really Old One, or an extremely Venerable One, or the Ancient One. All those terms are time-bound. Maybe the most we can say with all this is that God is the Timeless One.
The Everlasting Judge in the Divine Courtroom. The biblical term Ancient of Days in Daniel’s vision is Aramaic, Atik Yomin. It is one of the very few Aramaic titles for God in Scripture. In Daniel’s vision, the Ancient of Days is the Judge of the Gentile nations. The setting for this vision is a cosmic courtroom somewhere, in heaven perhaps? There are a number of world empires being judged, powerful empires that rose to great prominence then crumbled and fell. Who better to be the ultimate Judge over these nations? He has seen everything that has ever happened in the history of the universe, the world’s only eyewitness to all the deeds of mankind. This Judge has literally seen it all, so if He doesn’t have the perfect perspective, who would? What a gift… the world’s only objective Person. God is wise to what the world has to say in its defense. The perfect Judge, the Ancient of Days.
An Attempt at a Description. In Daniel’s vision, the Judge’s robe is snow white, symbolizing holiness and purity. His hair is as white as lamb’s wool, which is a symbol for being ageless, for having an eternal nature. The Judge’s throne is made of flames of fire, and so are the wheels beneath the throne. Those wheels of fire symbolize the Judge’s unlimited range of mobility. He can go wherever He wants at any time, up or down, left or right, heaven or earth, in and out of time and space. The wheels reveal that the Judge’s mobility is not dependent on anyone or anything but Himself. He is a completely independent Being who can go wherever He wants in His judgments. From His throne flows a river of fire. Could we ever find a more poetic picture of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit of God, the river of fire, fills up the courtroom with His presence as they open the books of life and death. Now comes one of the most dramatic scenes in all of Scripture, the only time in the Bible when God the Father meets with God the Son face-to-face. The Son of Man appears.
“As my vision continued 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; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13-14).
Theophany of the Son of Man. When Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, He was most likely declaring Himself to be the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Son of Man vision in Daniel 7. Many scholars claim that during Jesus’ time the Son of Man was the “highest term used in Jewish thought for the Messiah, and it was the most exalted view of the coming Redeemer.” (Brad Young, Jesus, the Jewish Theologian). So when Jesus used that title, it was commonly understood by those who heard it that He certainly intended to suggest Messiah. Although not having taken the time to certify this number, one biblical scholar claims that Jesus directly referenced the vision of Daniel as many as fifty times when using the term Son of Man.
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another…” (Matthew 25:31-32). Jesus gave Himself the title Son of Man throughout His ministry as recorded in the gospels, more than fifty times. Son of Man was His favorite way of describing Himself, even though He never once heard that term applied to Him by His disciples. Practically all biblical scholars believe that Jesus, at least in part, took that title from this well-known vision of Daniel’s and turned it into a title for Himself. There is much controversy, though, about what exactly this title Son of Man means. There were times in the gospels in which Jesus called Himself Son of Man in reference to His humanity. Jesus used the title in order to remind everyone of His humble condition as a flesh and blood, generic human being, in complete solidarity with all of humanity. Matthew 8:20 probably falls in line with that thought, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Isn’t it fascinating that Daniel’s vision reveals the “One like the Son of Man” to be in human form, but was also divine, given the sovereignty over all the earth. This majestic person in the vision is “like” the Son of Man, but then again it is obvious here that He is much more than that. When Jesus claims to be the Son of Man, He is referring to both His humanity and His divinity. Jesus claimed to be both aspects of the prophesied Son of Man in Daniel, completely human and completely divine. He claimed to be the glorious fulfillment of Daniel 7, coming in the clouds of heaven to approach God in His eternal presence. Yes, He was born of a human being, mother Mary. And yes, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, God Himself. He was a Person, yet He received from God the kingdom of the earth. The Messiah, both human and divine. Jesus the Messiah. He wasn’t merely “like the Son of man,” He was as He repeatedly said during His ministry, “the” Son of Man.
Historically, the vision in Daniel 7 has been understood as a vivid description of the Second Coming of Christ in glory. It is the momentous time in history when the Messiah, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, returns and receives from the Father “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.” (Daniel 7:14). John’s revelation dovetails with Daniel’s prophecy as he said in his Revelation 14:14, “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown.”
Travis Ryan – Son of God, Son of Man