day seven: Christ, the Ancient of Days

Readings: Daniel 7, Hebrews 1:8-12, Revelation 1

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Only in one chapter of the Bible is the name Ancient of Days used as a divine title—only by the prophet Daniel, a displaced Israelite in the kingdom of Babylon, a dedicated servant of the God of Israel.

And in this one chapter, the title doesn’t, at first, refer to the Christ at all, but rather to the Father—to God who sits on a fire-wheeled throne, surrounded by throngs of angels, with a river flowing from it (Daniel 7:9-10, Revelation 22:1). God is the Ancient of Days.

But a dozen verses later, the same name is used again:

I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.

Daniel 7:21-22

This Person can only be the Christ of John’s Revelation—the One clothed in snow-white and blazing like fire, the one with the keys of death and Hades, the One who will restore His kingdom eternally for the priesthood of the saints. Christ, too, is the Ancient of Days.

This is important, lest we confine Him to the limits of a good man and wise prophet, thirty-something years old and tragically killed. He is so much more. He preexisted all Creation along with the Father and the Spirit, and He was intimately involved in the fashioning of it. He is not just the last, but the first as well. He has been a part of human history from the beginning. He was as relevant in the time of Daniel as in the week of the Passion or the dawn of 2018. He is the Ancient of Days.