KING OF HEAVEN

The fact that Israel no longer had a kingdom on earth that was their own, would cause them to wonder, ‘how will God now govern in the earth and over this earth?’ This should have been one great dilemma to godly Jews living in the time of Daniel. In scripture God had previously made certain promises. How would His agenda proceed? In Joshua’s time ‘the Lord of all the earth’, accompanied the ark as it crossed the Jordan into the promised land, Josh 3. 11-13. But by Daniel’s time that former glory had departed and the earthly kingdom was no more. The responsibility of government on earth was later given into Gentile control, 2 Chron. 36. 23; Ezra 1. 2. Repeatedly, in the opening chapters, we have the answer of how God would govern.

If the kingdom on earth is gone, He can still rule from heaven. The book of Daniel does not emphasize Him as the Lord of all the earth, but ‘the God of Heaven’, Dan. 2.19. ‘There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets’, Dan. 2. 28. Daniel announced to Nebuchadnezzar, ‘the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength, and glory’, Dan. 2. 37. And, as if to announce a leading theme in Matthew’s gospel where the term ‘the kingdom of heaven’ is so often used, Daniel says, ‘the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed’, Dan. 2. 44 NKJV.

It is profitable to note the references to heaven through Daniel’s opening chapters. Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance reduced him to a scratching, crawling earthbound beast. The ‘seven times’ passed over him, and at the end of that time he came to ‘know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men’, Dan. 4. 25,32. This was the turning point. By God’s grace Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes to heaven, and his understanding returned, and he blessed the most High ‘whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation’, Dan. 4. 34.

We all need deliverance from that wretched earthbound insanity of self-will, covetousness and pride. It comes when we bow our will before ‘the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment’, Dan. 4. 37.