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fiery flames, and tbe wheels thereof
burning fire" (Dan. 7:9).
Thi s is no other tban G od
Ahnighty on bis glorious tbrone!
Now we come to sorne eye-open–
ing verses.
" l saw in the night visions, and,
behold, there carne with the clouds
of heaven one like unto a son of
man, and he carne even to the
An cient of days, and he was
brough t n"ear before Him. And
there was given him dominion, and
glory, and a kingdom, t hat all
peoples, nat ions, and languages
should serve him; his dominion is
an everlasti ng dominion, which
shall not pass away, and his lóng–
do m that which shall no t be
destroyed" (verses 13-14).
Who is this "son of man"?
It
is evident that God crowns
him as king of the
entire
earth so
that he may estab1ish God's king–
dom and rule forever.
Is he a human being?
If
so, what
human would be given such a high
and mighty honor?
Let's see what one can find out
from the book of Isaiah about this
coming ru1er.
"For a chi1d is born unto us, a
son is given unto us; and the gov–
ernment is upon his shoulder; and
his name is called Pele-joez-el-gib–
bor-abi-ad-sar-shalom [and the
footnote in our t ranslat ion explains:
" T hat is, Wonderful in counsel is
God the Mighty, the everlasting
Father, the Ruler of peace"); that
the gÓvernment may be increased,
and of peace there be no end, upon
the throne of David, and upon his
kingdom, to establish it, and to
uph o ld it throug h justice an d
through righteousness from hence–
forth even for ever. Tbe zeal of the
Lord of hosts doth perform this"
{lsa. 9:5-6).
Sorne of our J ewish commenta–
tors are of the opinion that Isaiah
was talking about a man living in
his day. They think this passage
may refer to Hezekiah, the son of
Ahaz king of Judah.
But notice!
T his son would establish t he
throne of David forever. Hezekiah
never did this. He died as a mortal
man.
1 noticed the t it les of this indi–
vidual. They are too great to apply
to any ordinary man. The
Jewish
16
Encyclopedia
recognizes this is a
reference to a greater King, the
Messiah.
A Twig of Jesse
Isaiah continues: "And there shal l
come forth a shoot out of the stock of
Jesse [King David's father], and a
twig shall grow forth out of his roots.
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest
upon him, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel
and migbt, tbe spiri t of knowledge
and of the fear of the Lord.... But
with righteousness shall he judge the
poor, and decide with equity for tbe
meek of the land; and he shall smite
the land with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips shall
he slay the wicked" (l sa. 11 :1-2, 4).
This child is to be a descendant
of Jesse, King David's father. In his
time there will be peace and knowl–
edge of God worldwide (verses 6-
9). All nations will seek this "root
of Jesse" (verse 10). Israel will be
delivered a second t ime from cap–
tivity (verse 11 ).
This can only be that "son of
man" mentioned in Daniel. There
is only one time of worldwide peace
mentioned in the Scriptures. Once
it starts, it will last forever!
This world ruler is even greater
than King David of Israel.
Daniel ment ions that the r igh–
teous will be resurrected to glory
from their graves (Dan. 12:2-3).
These saints will also rule the earth
under the great King (Dan. 7:18,
22, 27). l found most Christian
commentators did not understand
these verses.
The Hebrew Sc riptures a lso
explain that King David, one of the
resurrected saints, will be ruler
over all the tribes of Israel in the
new government of peace (Ezek.
34:23-24, 37:24-25; Jer. 30:9).
But David recognized that this
future world ruler was over him in
authority. In Psalm 110, he calls
this ruler "my lord ."
"The Lord saith unto my lord: 'Sit
thou at My right hand, until 1 make
thine enemies thy footstool' " (verse
1).
lt
is clear from the above pas–
sages that David is talking about the
great King to come. We already saw
in Daniel 7 that this King comes
near God's throne in heaven.
Yet, this King is prophesied to
be born in David's lineage:
"Bebold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that 1 will raise unto
David a righteous shoot, and he
shall reign as king and prosper, and
shall execute justice and righteous–
ness in the land .
- " Jn his days Judah sha ll be
saved, and Israel shall dwell safely;
and this is his name whereby he
shall be called, The Lord is our
righteousness" (Jer. 23:5-6) . A
similar scripture is found in J ere–
miah 33: 15-16.
On Oavld's Throne
One thing is obvious. David, God's
prophet , knew of this coming great
King. God promised King David
that his throne would Jast forever
(11 Sam. 7:12-13, 16). Many in the
nation knew that David's lineage
would eventually produce t)1e great
King that was to rule forever.
Jacob, grandson of Abraham,
many years earlier, prophesied of
the g reat King springing f rom
David's t ribe of Judah and taking
tbe rulership (Gen. 49:1 0).
Other prophecies also spoke of
him. This great King carne to be
called the " Messiah"-meaning
God's anoi nted.
Anciently, al l kings of Israel
were anointed wi th o il upon
entering thcir position of rulership.
T he great King to come is no
exception.
Th is King- the Messiah- has
been thc hope of Israel through the
centuries. When the Scriptures
speak of a great King, they almost
always refcr to
this
King. Psalm 72,
for instance, speaks of a great King
that would rule aJI other kings and
nations (verse 11) and rule forever
(verse 17).
Many J ewish references recog–
nize that the Scriptures speak of a
Messiah to come. Sorne modero
comme n tato rs, however, do not
admit this. Read for example this
reference in the
Universal Jewish
En cyclopedia
article entitled
"Messiah": "The hope for a future
king who will redeem Is rael and
establish the Kingdom of God upon
earth is not expressly found either
in the Bibl ical or in the Apocryphal
writings."
Ou r ancient traditions state
otherwise.
During times of hardsbip, Jews
intently seized on the Messianic
The
PLAIN TRUTH