MESSIAH -
SON OF MAN/SON OF GOD
The
Messiah (anointed, Gk. Christ) was the designation of the one whom God promised
to send as king to deliver His people from oppression and establish His
kingdom. The Jews in NT times took the
prophecies concerning Him literalistically, expecting
a political figure to physically wrest them from the Roman empire
and return them to their lands in
In
“As
you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on
its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the
silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the
chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that
not a trace of them could be found. But
the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole
earth.” (v.34-35)
God
also showed Daniel the dream and gave him the interpretation of it as
representing 4 great empires (the first being the Babylonian empire) whose
memory He completely erases by the coming and spread of His own everlasting
kingdom. In fact by picturing four major
world empires as a single statue, God is commenting on the fate of all kingdoms
of men in this world throughout history.
“And
in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set
up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to
another people. It shall break in
pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,
just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand,
and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the
gold. A great God has made known to the
king what shall be after this” (v.44-45).
From
this we learn that God intends to take over the whole world by establishing a
different kind of kingdom that will be permanent and for His people only.
In Dan.4, God humbles Nebuchadnezzar and
teaches him something about His sovereignty and kingdom.
“…I
blessed the Most High, and praised Him who lives forever, for His dominion is
an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to
generation…He does according to His will…and none can stay His hand…”
(4:34b-35).
[There
is no indefinite article “a” in
either Greek or Hebrew. It is used in
English to smooth out the translation. Omission
of the definite article “the”
stresses the quality or character of its referent - “great God” in Dan.2:45 and “son of man” in Dan.7:13]
Later,
while serving another Babylonian king, God gave Daniel a more detailed dream
about the same things. This time the
great empires were represented by 4 great composite beasts and there was a
behind-the-scenes glimpse of God and His plans (Dan.7:2-8).
"As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his
seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from
before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand
stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened”
(Dan.7:9-10).
Notice
the depiction of the holiness of God and theme of judgment (also in the
previous dream as the destruction of the empires).
"I
saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and He came to the Ancient
of Days and was presented before Him. And
to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and
languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which
shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed”
(v.13-14).
Anyone with
knowledge of the New Testament will recognize this one “like a Son of Man” as
Jesus ascending to heaven after his resurrection where God presented to Him an
indestructible and everlasting kingdom of people loyal to Him.
[Clouds
are associated with the majesty and glory of God.]
The last
beast was different from the 3 previous ones and represented a worldwide
kingdom. It had 10 horns that
represented 10 kings, the last of whom was different from the others.
“As I looked, this horn
made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days
came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the
time came when the saints possessed the kingdom…But the court shall sit in
judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to
the end. And the kingdom and the
dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be
given to the people of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them” (v.21-22,
26-27).
Here
the focus is upon the saints as losing in battle, then upon Divine
intervention, being vindicated, and receiving the kingdom to rule over.
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At
the close of the book of Genesis, before the exodus, there had been a period of
silence, when there was no word from God lasting some 400 years. The Egyptians enslaved the descendants of
Abraham, but during that period, the Jewish tribes grew very much larger. God raised up the prophet Moses who delivered
the people from slavery through a series of miracles and judgments. So it was that after the last of the Old
Testament prophets, Malachi, there came another such period during which there
was no prophet in
Once
Jesus had become known for His miracles and teachings, He asks his disciples 2
questions, (Mt.16:13-18). Who do the people think the Son of Man really
is [implying that the designation
“Son of Man” is masking His true identity]? Who do you think I
really am? Peter answers the second by
asserting “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus confirms that Peter is correct saying, “…on this rock I
will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.” Here Jesus confirms the
fact of His divine messiahship with an allusion to
His Kingdom and the spiritual nature of it - the rock that was divinely appointed
to smash the feet of the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan.2). It will be a kingdom
unlike any other beginning in the days of the last kingdom envisioned in the
dream, the
He
goes on to warn the disciples not to reveal His true identity (v.20) and speaks of something that must
take place [Gk.
dei – it is necessary. Identifies a requirement for fulfillment of
an overall plan.], His coming abuse by the Jewish leaders (elders, chief priests,
and scribes) in
Jesus
continues by explaining what these facts mean in terms of the His return in
judgment.
“the
Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and
then He will repay each person according to what he has done” (Mt.16:27).
A
parallel passage emphasizes His return in even stronger terms.
“when He comes in His glory and the
glory of the Father and of the holy angels…” (Lk.9:26).
This
is followed by an account of the unveiling of Jesus’ true glory to three of the
disciples.
“He was transfigured
before them, and His face shown like the sun, and His clothes became white as light…a
bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.’”
(Mt.17:2-5). Again Jesus commanded them
to keep His true identity secret, “Tell no one the vision,
until the Son of Man is raised from the dead” (v.9).
Jesus in
answering the Pharisees inquiry about “when the
So
Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man rather than as the Christ to hide
His true identity and avoid arrest until His mission was completed and His time
to die had come. Near the end of His
time on earth, Jesus indicts the scribes and Pharisees (Mt.23:13-36), laments over
“all
the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming
on clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out His angels…”
(Mt.24:29-31). “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and
all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne”
(25:31).
Finally,
Jesus is arrested and in response to prodding by the high priest, acknowledges
that He is
“the Christ, the Son of
the Blessed” and “you will see the Son of
Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven”
(Mk.14:61-62).
He
is then falsely accused, abused, mocked, crucified by the Romans under pressure
by a Jewish mob, and raised from the dead just as He
foretold. Jesus reveals Himself as the
one true ruler from that time on.
“Now the eleven
disciples went to
Not
only had Jesus predicted the mock trials, His murder, and resurrection, He also
foretold His ascension into heaven where He is glorified, and of His return.
“what if you were to see the Son of
Man ascending to where He was before” (Jn.6:62).
And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am you
may be also (Jn.14:3).
I am going to the Father (v.12).
now I am going to Him who sent Me (Jn.16:5).
A little while, and you will see Me
no longer; again a little while, and you will see Me (v.16).
I came from the Father
and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the
Father (v.28).
And now, Father, glorify
Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with
You before the world existed” (Jn.17:5).
Before
ascending, Jesus again spoke about “the
“’Lord, will You at this time
restore the kingdom to
…as they
were looking on, He was lifted up and a cloud took Him out of their sight. And while they were gazing
into heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said,
‘Men of
There
are only 3 places in rest of the New Testament where Jesus is referred to as
the Son of Man. In Stephen’s speech He
is referred to as “the Righteous One
whom you [Jews] have now betrayed and murdered” (Acts 7:52).
“He [Stephen], full of
the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus
standing at the right hand of God…‘Behold I see the heavens opened, and the
Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’”(v.55-56).
Paul sends
a word of encouragement about the “righteous judgment of God” and His kingdom (2 Thes.1:5) to the believers in Thessalonica who were suffering
persecution for their faith in Christ (v.4,
6).
“when the Lord Jesus is revealed
from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,
inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey
the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal
destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his
might, when he comes on that day [judgment
day, “the day of the Lord”]…” (v.7b-10a)
In the
opening chapter of Revelation, John greets the seven churches in
“from Jesus Christ the faithful witness,
the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our
sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to
Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen. Behold, He is coming [going to come] with the clouds, and every
eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth
will wail [mourn] on account of Him”
(Rev.1:4-7).
Here Jesus,
who had come and given His life for our redemption, is again pictured as coming
in judgment - a certain and future event.
“I was in the Spirit…and I heard behind me a loud voice like a
trumpet...Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on
turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the
midst of the lampstands one like a son of man,
clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around His chest. The hairs of His head were white, like white
wool, like snow. His eyes were like a
flame of fire, His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and
His voice was like the roar of many waters.
In His right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp
two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though
dead. But He laid His right hand on me,
saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and
the living one. I died, and behold I am
alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades’” (v.10-18).
Seven
trumpets herald judgment upon the inhabitants of Earth, and the last to sound
proclaims victory.
“Then the seventh angel blew his
trumpet, and there were voices in heaven saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has
become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever
and ever.’” (Rev.11:15)
Finally
Christ is depicted as king harvesting the earth’s inhabitants in the fullness
of time. It is the very end of the age
when He gathers His own and consigns the rest to Hell.
“Then I looked, and behold, a white
cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on
his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.
And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to
him who sat on the cloud, ‘Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap
has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.’ So he who sat on the cloud swung his
sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple in
heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority
over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp
sickle, ‘Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth,
for its grapes are ripe.’ So the angel
swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth
and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God” (Rev.14:14-19).
So
ends the long war mankind has waged against God and His Messiah as David king
of
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“The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my
right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
The LORD sends forth from
Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of
your power, in holy garments;
from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will
be yours.
The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’
The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings
on the day of his wrath.
He will execute judgment among the nations,
filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.
He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will
lift up his head.” (Ps.110)
The outcome
never was in doubt.
“Why do the nations rage and the peoples
plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD
and against his Anointed, saying,
‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords
from us.’
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in
derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘As for me, I have
set my King on
I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, ‘You are
my Son; today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them
in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’
Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of
the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” (Ps.2)