The Ancient of Days sits on his throne

Daniel 7:9-10 ⁹I continued to watch until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His clothes were white as snow, and the hair on his head was like pure wool. His throne was flames of fire. Its wheels were burning fire. ¹⁰A river of fire flowed out from his presence. Thousands upon thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and books were opened.

The King will come at age’s end, The trumpets trill, the heavens rend, Unveiling new Jerusalem. Alleluia! (CWS: 731 v1)

There is a very good chance that you weren’t happy with how the elections turned out this week. Somewhere along the way, at least one of the candidates you voted for did not make it.

I’m not afraid to admit that my candidate didn’t win. One of our state senators was running unopposed, so I wrote in a name. Jerry Marowsky, our 8^th grade teacher. I asked Mr. Marowsky on Tuesday how his exit polling was going. I told him it was my fault. I started his campaign as I was driving to the polling place. Mr. Marowsky didn’t get enough votes. He didn’t win. Sadness and disappointment.

Daniel’s haunting, mysterious vision in our Old Testament lesson is a reminder that no matter who sits in the White House, the Ancient of Days sits on his fiery throne. There can be no sadness or disappointment when God is in control.

The children of Israel have been carried out of their homeland and into captivity in Babylon. Daniel is Jewish royalty who is living in exile but is now a high ranking official in Babylonian King Belshazzar’s court. Belshazzar is the last of the Babylonian kings before Cyrus of the Medo-Persian empire conquers Babylon.

While Daniel is lying on his bed, he receives a strange vision of four fierce beasts rising out of the sea. These four beasts symbolize four successive empires that arise to occupy positions of prominence and power. Each of these empires will have a definite influence on God’s ancient people.

The Babylonian empire is characterized by a regal and dangerous lion, made swift with the addition of eagle wings. The Babylonian empire was a powerful force to be reckoned with in the ancient Near East.

Cyrus’ Medo-Persian empire is pictured with a bear’s strength, gnawing on the meaty bones of its three greatest conquests – Lydia, Egypt and Babylon.

Alexander the Great’s kingdom is represented as a leopard that is made even quicker and deadlier with four wings and four heads. Greece would be known for its Blitzkrieg, its lightning fast warfare in its world conquest.

Rome is described as an unnamed beast. It is the most powerful and frightening of all with its large iron teeth and ten horns. Rome’s only aim was to destroy, crush and devour.

Daniel is sharing his vision with God’s people. No one must tell them about the devastating effects of military powers. They have already experienced the eagle-winged lion of Babylon. They will soon experience three even deadlier and more vicious beasts in the future.

God’s people of all ages tend to become fearful and dismayed as they put too much emphasis on worldly leaders. We post the accomplishments of our party and politician while decrying the failures of the other party and politician. We break up families and friendships with stubbornness over politics. God chastens us with this vision to remember – now more than ever – that he doesn’t need our long-term strategies or our pragmatic politics or our cunning calculations. He only asks for our faithfulness, regardless of the conditions that surround us or the consequences that fall upon us.

God predicts that anguish is going to come upon his people. But to calm his fearful people and give them eternal hope, Daniel’s nighttime vision doesn’t end there. God instills confidence in his people with these two verses: “I continued to watch until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His clothes were white as snow, and the hair on his head was like pure wool. His throne was flames of fire. Its wheels were burning fire. A river of fire flowed out from his presence. Thousands upon thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and books were opened.”

The succession of earthly kingdoms is stopped. No beasts have the last word. Presidents, kings, dictators and world rulers will be allowed to have their day. But the Ancient of Days has eternity.

All earthly rulers are temporal. 4 or 8 years for a president. A lifetime for a king. Several centuries for a nation. But the Ancient of Days is without beginning or ending of days. He is eternal. He was here before any rulers took their thrones. He will be here when all rulers’ thrones are traded in for coffins.

The Lord, God the Father, is the Ancient of Days. He and his Son Jesus sit on their thrones. They will pronounce judgment on their enemies. God will have the last word in history, just as he had the first word at creation.

The Ancient’s appearance is pure. His clothing is white as snow. This symbolizes God’s purity. The Ancient and his Son have the moral right to condemn sinners. The Ancient’s hair is white like wool symbolizing the King’s age. He has been around a long time.

The Ancient’s throne has wheels. Don’t picture an old man’s wheelchair. Instead, picture a war chariot. Justice was often executed on the battlefield – swift and brutal.

God’s throne is flaming with fire. The chariot’s wheels are ablaze. A river of fire flows out from him. Fire is the ultimate fate of all those who oppose the Lord and rebel against him.

God’s enemies should be terrified at the sight of his pure, fiery splendor. But as God’s saints, we love this vision. Our terror at the sight of the four beasts is followed by our confidence in the Ancient of Days. Our dismay over who wins any election is replaced with the assurance that the Ancient of Days is always reigning on his fiery throne.

One of the reasons we get so caught up in politics is because we mistakenly believe that the right President, Governor, Mayor, Supreme Court Justice or local school board member makes all the difference. We somehow pretend these people are our messiahs. They will stem the tide of moral decay. They will curb the violence in our streets. They will instill right values in our young people.

No wonder we get all amped up for elections. No wonder we care so much about politics. We are working to vote in a messiah to save our country.

Then we are deeply disappointed when our chosen messiah loses. He didn’t save our country. She didn’t get the job done. They failed to live up to our messianic standards. That’s why the next election will be the most important election of our lifetime.

Friends, no matter your perspective, priorities or policies, earthly politics are full of empty words and broken promises. Our politicians are sinful people. They will fail us. Just as we fail them.

The beasts attack and persecute us as Christians. We don’t need to be worried. We don’t need to be afraid. We don’t need to be depressed. We need to realize that Christians in every era have been hunted and harassed. We are light in a dark world. We are Christ’s ambassadors in the enemy’s territory. We are Christian soldiers fighting against the great dragon and his wild beasts. God will direct his damning river of fire on those who oppose him and his people.

After the Lord has caused his fiery justice to flow over his enemies, the fire becomes a river of life for his saints. As the battlefield of the end times gives way to the New Jerusalem, a river of the water of life flows from the thrones of God and his Son.

Ten thousand times ten thousand angels – that’s a hundred million, by the way – surround the throne of God, eager to do his bidding. Their presence adds to the glory of God’s presence.

This is God’s courtroom. Any courtroom needs books containing the formal charges and evidence against the criminals. God doesn’t need frail papyrus to remind him of the activities of billions of sinners. The books are symbolic that God’s judgment is absolutely fair and absolutely without error or corruption. Every unbeliever will know what he did and understand that his sentence is fair and justly deserved.

One book has every criminal thought, word and action recorded. The other book is the Book of Life (Daniel 12:1). In this book is written only the names of God’s saints. The blood of Jesus has erased all the criminal activities out of this book.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel lesson on what basis we will be judged. “For I was hungry and you did not give me food to eat. I was thirsty and you did not give me anything to drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, lacking clothes and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not take care of me.’ ‘Amen I tell you: Just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me’” (Matthew 25:42-43,45b).

These are strong words of judgment. What can we do? All our hate, lack of love, selfishness, distrust, apathy and indifference should be recorded in the first book. We deserve to be in line for God’s fiery judgment.

How then can we be saved?

Only through the real Messiah. God’s Son Jesus the Christ. Our righteous Judge who is also our merciful Savior. He is the One who saw us when we were hungry and thirsty and poor and naked and sick and lonely. He saw enemies of God. He saw slaves to sin. Yet, he did not turn away from us. Because of his great love – and not anything we did or will do – he came down to us. He became one of us. The divine King left his throne to be born of a woman and laid in a manger. He traded his royal robes for swaddling clothes. The King, who is without time, entered our time to suffer and die on the Roman beast’s cross. He accepted the crucifixion by his enemies to rescue us from persecution by those same enemies. He rose from the dead to free us from the power of death. Outside of Jerusalem, he took on himself the fiery wrath of the Ancient of Days so we could enjoy the River of Life in New Jerusalem. He welcomed all our criminal activities on his righteous body so he personally writes our names in his Book of Life.

He is the King who will come at age’s end.

Christians have lived for centuries under persecution from the beasts. True Christians will continue to be persecuted. (If we aren’t persecuted, we need to wonder if people even know that we’re Christians.) Rather than complain and whine about opposition, we should expect it. Welcome it. Be counted worthy of it (Acts 5:41). Every Christian who has been persecuted for his or her faith can take great comfort from Daniel’s vision. This vision of the Ancient of Days assures God’s people of every age that the wicked who oppose God will be held accountable on the Last Day. This vision assures God’s saints that we will be vindicated on Judgment Day.

This vision is a great reminder that no matter what happens in politics, our Lord is above politics. No matter who sits in the White House or the Governor’s mansion, the Ancient of Days sits on his throne. Jesus, the true Messiah, sits on his throne beside his Father. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the King of America, the King of all nations, the King of all peoples everywhere.

No election, now or in the future, will change the truth that the Ancient of Days sits on his throne. Amen.

The book of life will name its names, Each bought by cross’s bitter pain, Each inked in blood and sealed in flame. Alleluia! (CWS: 731 v2)