Series: Resilience  
Message: Patience  
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira

Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 16:1-6.

Read: Daniel 7 & 8 - Re-read in the ESV translation for new insights/questions.  

Reflect: The little horn stands in opposition to the “one like a son of man” (Daniel. 7:13). The phrase “one like a son of man” appears nearly 200 times in the Bible. Ezekiel uses it 92 times in his book and it refers to him directly. Most Jewish commentators have understood this in Daniel to be a phrase describing the Messiah. The Gospels use it often and Jesus described Himself with this title, too (Matthew 16:27; 25:31). Pushing hard against the human man-made gods as found in Daniel 3:4,5, Jesus is the only one with authority and power over earth.  Joyce G. Baldwin in her commentary on Daniel, pp. 164-171, helps us understand the significance of not being forthright and allowing us the time to develop who the identity of the “one like a son of man.” Through a series of clues and tips, we start to piece together the identity. For instance, that the judgment will be given to someone who shares humanity and understands what it means for us. When Jesus used the title in the Gospels, He sometimes connected it with “suffering.” Thus creating an echo in the mind of people back to Abel (Genesis 4), whose faithfulness in worship cost him his life. Worship is central to the story as we have seen since Daniel 1.  It was in the late 1800s that several books were published attempting to diminish the authority of the Bible and alluding to legends from other periods as sources for the “visions,” especially in reference to “one like a son of man.” It is because of the strong connection in the Bible both from the 1st and 2nd testaments which help create the narrative we believe today. Jesus is the Son of man (Revelation 12:7-9; Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1 and Matthew 16:27). I personally also love the parallels being built in the book as we start to think of the “stone cut by no human hand.”  

Recalibrate: 

1. What are your three favorite titles for Jesus and why?
2. How does it help you, when you know that Jesus lived here on earth too?

Respond: Pray for opportunity to change.

Research: When Jesus was questioned, he applied Daniel 7:13,14 to Himself in Matthew 26:64. What does the commentator John E. Goldingay mean, when he states on p.190 in the Word Biblical Commentary: Daniel, “The realization of God’s creation ideal comes not through the world’s becoming more human but through God’s gift of this humanlike person”?