Daniel is horrified at the nature of the fourth empire, and at the activities of the little horn that arises within it and that speaks great things against God and tries to destroy his people. A horn was symbolic of power. Who is represented by the little horn? Your guess is as good as mine, but we can note four things that are said about him.
First, he is connected to the fourth empire, which is the Roman Empire. Second, he will oppose God’s people and attempt to change God’s laws (v. 25). Third, eventually the heavenly court will sit and take his power away from him (v. 26). Fourth, it is stressed that he is a little horn, even if he seems powerful for a while.
Various suggestions have been made regarding the identity of the little horn and you can read about those suggestions in a commentary. Personally, I think he represents all human governments that have succeeded the Roman empire down to the present day and who have attempted to oppose God in one way or another. But God will defeat them all.
The question that arises is, ‘What is God doing about this?’ One detail of the answer to that searching question is that he is exercising patience regarding those attacks on his kingdom. After all, where are the subjects of his kingdom going to come from? Every one of them previously belonged to an earthly kingdom. The subjects of his grace at one time were his enemies, and they all can say that he has not dealt with them in the way that their sins deserved.
The reality that God is patient, waiting for his enemies to repent, reminds us that Jesus reveals his power in more than one way. He could reveal his power in a great display of crushing strength in which he dismissed into oblivion the puny rulers and kingdoms of this world. God could do that, in a moment. Yet he presently chooses to reveal his power in a gracious way, offering forgiveness and pardon to those who have rebelled against him. He works in their hearts to change them from brutal behaviour to gracious behaviour.
It is our task to tell people about the gospel so that they can respond to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment