Skip to main content

 



Daniel 7:9

I watched till thrones were put in place,

And the Ancient of Days was seated;

His garment was white as snow,

And the hair of His head was like pure wool.

His throne was a fiery flame,

Its wheels a burning fire;

 

Thought for the day – Powerless to act

In our chapter today, Daniel has this amazing vision of four beasts, they are the kingdoms of the world that are to follow. It's an image that we see again in the book of Revelation, and a reminder to us that when John wrote the book of Revelation, he was relying on texts from the Old Testament.

But our focus today, and the verse that caught my mind, is verse 9. That sense that we are back in the throne room of God, where thrones are set in place, and the Ancient One or the Ancient of Days, as our verse says today, has taken his place and is ready to bring judgment on the world.

That description of God is awe-inspiring. His clothing was white as snow. The hair on his head was like pure wool. These are amazing images of God. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. These are truly awe-inspiring images.

Last night I sat in a meeting and we talked about the mystery of God. It was actually membership classes for church and we talked about how we had lost some of the mystery of God, some of the awesomeness of God. And as I was reading today's chapter I was drawn to this verse describing the throne room of God. I loved being back in the presence of the Holy One. Those moments in scripture where we are back in the throne room of God, I think are important for us, because they I think they root us in a place that is holy, it reminds us that is more than what we see. I don’t think it’s a comfortable place. But then maybe we’ve become too comfortable, too familiar with our understanding of God and places like the Holy of Holies and the Throne room of God remind us that God is so much more than we can ever understand or comprehend.


This blog post is part of the Walking the Way Podcast series. All views expressed in this essay are those of the author. This essay is freely available under Creative Commons License with Attribution-ShareAlike, allowing users to share it in other mediums/formats and adapt/translate the content as long as an attribution link, indication of changes, and the same Creative Commons License applies to that material.

This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What does it mean to put Jesus first?

What does it mean to put Jesus first? John 12:1-8   Philippians 3:4b-13 What does it mean to put Jesus first? I ask this because as always I try to find a link between the two lectionary readings and as I was thinking about the readings the thing that I recognized across both these passages was the thought that both Mary and Paul are putting Jesus first. In John, we have this wonderful account of Mary anointing Jesus. It’s a passage we think we know reasonably well. It’s not the only account of Jesus being anointed, and most Biblical scholars agree that this account is the same as the accounts found in Luke and Matthew. Details vary but essentially it is the same account. In the account we see Jesus reclining at a table and then Mary prostrates herself at Jesus’ feet and empty’s a whole jar of nard on Jesus. And then wipes Jesus feet with her hair. Two things strike me here. Firstly Nard was not cheap. John notes that is was the equivalent of a year’s worth of wag...
 Holiness What does holiness look like to you? Or when you hear the word holy what comes to mind. The reason I’m asking is because for a while now I have been thinking about holiness. What does it mean to be holy and whether or not we can truly be holy? We are commanded to be holy both in the Old Testament and by Jesus who said be holy as your Father in heaven is holy (Matthew 5:48).  John Wesley taught that genuine faith produces inward and outward holiness. He consistently argued that salvation must produce holiness of heart and life, but he never viewed the process as something that would be completed. He taught that despite the inner assurance and regeneration of character that results from knowing that you have been saved, it is never too long before we discover that there is still a root of sin within. However, there is never an occasion or state of true Christian discipleship that does not lead to a deepening of our love for God and for our neighbour and we become mo...
Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven   Thought for the day The blogger Jill Printzenhoff writes about a time how she went fishing and caught nothing and yet the fisherman next to her managed to pull out seven. They were using different bait and she describes it as not her day. She finishes her blog post with these words: ‘You keep striving, you keep working, and you keep on keeping on. Because some day when you cast your line . . . you will be at the right spot at the right time . . . and that day will be your day . . . the day you catch that all elusive fish!’ I believe that there is a time for everything under heaven and earth and sometimes, well actually, all the time we need to be patient and wait because the reality of the situation is we are working to God’s time. The writer of Ecclesiastes also says this about God’s timing: ‘He has made everything appropriate[b] in its time. He has also put eternity in...