Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

stroyed"
Like Daniel, let us pray on and let us labor on,
for Daniel's God is our God, and His Mediator is our
Christ, ready to hear and also ready to answer and
give redemption and victory to His own.
Ill
Christ Demands Submission of All Men and Nations,
Exalted above All
It is said of Christ, "By me kings reign, and
princes decree justice." We are told in the words of
the apostle Paul that Christ became man, "humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above
every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth ;
and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father."
Ascension and Crowning
The Psalms portray the ascension of Christ and
Daniel portrays his crowning more vividly than else
where in the Bible.
The Psalmist said :
"God is ascended with a shout,
The Lord with trumpet sound.
Sing praise to God our King : sing praise,
resound."
Yea let His praise
What a glorious reception in heaven our Lord
received as portrayed in another Psalm ! It may have
been sung in honor of the return of the ark to Je
rusalem, but how much more truly did it tell of the
ascending Lord!
The host of angels accompanying Christ as He
ascended seem to sing in a loud voice :
"Ye gates, lift up your heads on high;
Ye doors that last for aye,
Be lifted up, that so the King
may."
Of glory enter
The guardian angels seem to ask,
"But who of glory is the King"
The reply comes back:
"The mighty Lord is this;
Ev'n that same Lord that great in might
And strong in battle is.
Ye gates, lift up your heads on high ;
Ye doors that last for aye,
Be lifted up, that so the King
may."
Of glory
enter
Again the guardian angels call:
"But who is He that is the King
Of glory Who is this"
The heavenly
escort exclaims in reply:
"The Lord of Hosts and none but He
The King of glory is."
Thus the Psalms give us a glorious picture of
Christ's ascension, but it was given to Daniel to see
a vision in the seventh chapter which takes us be
yond the veil to the very throne of God, in a manner
which is not even revealed in the gospels.
358
Daniel saw till the thrones were cast down and
the victorious Christ came into the presence of the
Ancient of Days, God the Father, who was sitting
upon the throne in all His glory. He saw one like the
Son of Man (Christ Jesus) come with the clouds of
heaven to the Ancient of Days, and they brought
Him near before Him. "And there was given him do
minion, and glory and a kingdom, that all people, na
tions and languages should serve him: his dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away,
and his kingdom that which shall not be de
(7:9-14).
Here heaven is opened and we are given a pic
ture of Christ being crowned as Mediatorial King by
God the Father.
The Psalmist was directed to say of this con
quering King:
"Jehovah to my Lord hath said,
Sit Thou at My right hand
Until I make thy foes a stool
stand."
Whereon Thy feet may
Always King
The exercise of the kingly office of Christ be
fore and after His resurrection was much the same
as the exercise of an earthly king before and after
his coronation. The ceremony of the coronation
makes a public display of the sovereign's investiture
with kingly power, but his authority and power may
have existed long before.
Christ is before all things, and by Him all
things consist. All things were created by Him and
for Him. In all things He should have the pre-em
inence (Col. 1:16-18).
In the day in which we live when there is so
much defection in the church and so much rebellion
in the state, we see the need of a new realization of
Christ the Mediator upon the throne, and of Him
holding all peoples and all nations as a drop in a
bucket, by His almighty power.
The Right to Demand Submission
We should remember that this is the outstand
ing book of the Bible dealing with Gentile nations.
We have here the record of the rise and fall of three
world-conquering kings, and of another king which
was used of God to carry out His will toward His
people.
Daniel had reproduced and interpreted the
dream of the wicked tyrranical king, Nebuchadnez
zar, which taught him that Christ, the stone cut out
of the mountain, was not only over him, but had
power to destroy him and all the succeeding kings.
After interpreting another dream which showed that
Nebuchadnezzar should be brought low, and if he did
not repent would lose his reason and be degraded to
the statue of the beasts of the field until he should
be ready to recognize the power and dominion of
Christ, in place of
repenting he became more
haughty and the sentence was carried out. After he
had thus suffered and his reason returned to him
he was willing to admit that the Most High ruleth
in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of
the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto
thou"
him, what doest
Tested by Fire
Moreover, Daniel had seen the effort of Nebu
chadnezzar to force all the people of his realm to be
come idolaters and bow before his golden image:
COVENANTER WITNESS