Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Everlasting Kingdom of the Son of Man (Daniel) | Thomas R. Schreiner

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The Everlasting Kingdom of the Son of Man (Daniel) | Thomas R. Schreiner · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. Today we're doing a deep dive
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  into, well, one of the most significant books in the entire
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  Old Testament, the Book of Daniel.
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  It really is. And to get it, you have to start
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  with the historical setting. We're talking about the darkest
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  period in Israel's history, the Babylonian exile.
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  Right. This is roughly 605 to 536 BCA
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  defeated people dragged from their homes.
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  And what we want to do today is look at the theological message
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  of this book for those people and for us.
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  Exactly. Because Daniel's mission, you
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  could say, was fundamentally pastoral and it was meant to
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  give theological steel to the faithful.
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  I mean, the pressure to just give up and assimilate into
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  Babylonian culture must have been overwhelming.
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  I can't even imagine your capital city is destroyed, the
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  temple is gone, and it's holy vessels are now trophies in the
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  temple of a Pagan God, Mardoke. So the question they were facing
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  was, did our God Yahweh actually lose?
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  Is he weaker than the gods of Babylon?
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  It's an existential crisis. And Daniel answers that with a
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  resounding no. But before we get into the text
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  itself, it's good to remember why they were there in the 1st
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  place. This wasn't random.
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  Not at all. This was the direct result of
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  centuries of covenant violation, something spelled out in graphic
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  detail back in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
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  This was the covenant curse enacted.
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  So the core question Daniel is answering isn't just can God
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  save us, but is God still in control even when everything
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  looks like he's lost? That's it, and the book presents
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  the answer in this really brilliant structure, especially
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  chapters 2 through 7. They're laid out in what's
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  called a chaosic structure. OK, that sounds a little
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  academic for someone new to this.
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  How can we picture what that means?
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  Well, you can think of it like a set of bookends, or maybe nested
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  mirrors. The outer chapters 2 and seven,
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  they mirror each other. They both cover the whole sweep
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  of world history. The statue dream and the four
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  beasts vision. Exactly.
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  Then you move in a layer and you have chapter 3, the fiery
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  furnace, and chapter 6, the lion's den.
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  Both are about the deliverance of the faithful.
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  And then at the very center you have chapter 4, the humbling of
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  Nebuchadnezzar, and chapter 5, the fall of El Shazar.
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  Both are about God's direct sovereignty over proud kings.
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  The structure itself reinforces the central message.
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  So for our discussion, we can follow that flow.
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  We'll look at it through three big overlapping themes that come
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  out of that structure. The deliverance of the faithful,
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  then the humbling of the proud, and finally Yahweh's total
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  control over all of history. Sound good?
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  OK, so let's start with that first theme, deliverance under
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  pressure and this model of faithfulness we see in Daniel
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  and his friends, which kicks off right away in Chapter 1.
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  It does. And the symbolic weight of
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  what's happening is just, it's immense.
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  It's not just a military conquest when they take the
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  vessels from God's temple and put them in their God's temple.
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  It's a statement. It's a theological declaration
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  of victory. It is, but then the author gives
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  us this little geographical clue.
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  In verse 2. It says they were taken to the
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  land of Shinar. Shinar, that phrase has some
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  deep Old Testament history, doesn't it?
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  Oh it's huge. Shinar is the location of the
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  Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Ah OK, so by using that specific
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  name, the author is framing this whole Babylonian project as a
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  revival of that original humanistic rebellion against
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  God. Nebuchadnezzar is being set up
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  as a kind of new Nimrod. So it's not just another empire,
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  it's the archetypal city of man setting itself up against the
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  city of God. Precisely.
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  And that raises the stakes for everything Daniel does next.
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  Which brings us to what seems like a really small test, almost
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  a trivial 1. The food from the King's table.
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  Daniel and his friends are supposed to eat the King's food
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  and drink his wine, and Daniel just resolves not to.
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  And it's so easy to skim over that.
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  But you're right, for a Jew in exile, this was a massive deal.
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  There are a few reasons why this food would be considered
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  defiling. What are the main theories?
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  Well, the first and most obvious is that it probably wasn't
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  kosher. It violated the dietary laws
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  from the Torah. That's straightforward enough,
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  sure. A second and maybe more serious
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  reason is that this food would have almost certainly been
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  offered to Babylonian idols first before being served.
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  Right. So to eat it would be to
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  participate, even indirectly, in idolatry.
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  You'd be compromising right out of the gate.
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  But there's a third possibility, which is maybe the broadest 1.
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  Daniel and his friends just needed to draw a line.
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  A clear one. To distinguish themselves, yes.
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  Israel's whole problem leading to the exile was blurring the
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  lines, mixing paganism with true worship.
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  So for these young men, this was their stand.
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  They chose simple vegetables and water over the luxury and the
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  spiritual compromise of the King's court.
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  I like that phrase you used earlier, theological steel.
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  This is unforging it. And what's so interesting is how
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  God's sovereignty then works with their obedience.
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  At the perfect illustration, Daniel makes a choice, but he's
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  still in a dangerous position. He petitions the official and
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  the text says God gave Daniel favor with that official.
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  So Daniel acts, and God opens the door for that action to
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  succeed. Yes, the message for the Exiles
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  listening to this story would be so encouraging.
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  When you resolve to obey God, He will manage the circumstances
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  around you. And the result of their
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  faithfulness directly counters the fear that they would become,
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  you know, irrelevant or weak in this new culture.
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  Quite the opposite, God gives them wisdom and intellectual
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  skill that surpasses all the Babylonian magicians and
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  enchanters they end up excelling.
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  So the lesson is you don't have to compromise your faith to have
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  influence. Right.
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  If you honor God even when it's risky, He can grant you the very
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  skills you need to serve His purposes right where you are,
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  even in the heart of a Pagan system.
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  It's the blueprint for surviving exile with your soul intact.
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  So moving from that personal test in Chapter 1, we get to a
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  much more public corporate stand in Chapter 3 with Shadrach,
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  Meshach, and Abednego. Yeah, the stage gets a lot
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  bigger here. Nebuchadnezzar builds this
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  enormous golden image 90 feet tall.
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  The size has to be intentional. Oh for sure.
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  This wasn't just some personal statue, it was a monument to his
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  claim of worldwide dominion. It's another echo of Babel 1
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  ruler demanding total religious and political allegiance from
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  everyone. And the conflict is simple.
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  Bow down or die. A direct violation of the first
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  two commandments it. Is and Nebuchadnezzar gives them
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  a second chance, but their answer is just.
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  It's one of the high points of Scripture.
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  They say our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us, but if
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  not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your
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  gods. But if not, those 3 words are
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  everything it's. Such a powerful statement of
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  faith. It's not a guarantee of a good
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  outcome. It's a statement of allegiance
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  regardless of the outcome. It is, and this is where we need
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  to be careful with the interpretation.
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  Their miraculous rescue from that furnace which was heated 7
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  times hotter than normal. Right?
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  That shouldn't be read as a universal promise that every
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  faithful person will be spared from suffering or death.
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  It's just not how it works and it would lead to a very brittle
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  faith. So if it's not a promise of
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  individual escape, what's the theological message for the
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  whole exiled community? The message is corporate.
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  It's an assurance to the nation of Israel.
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  It tells them, first, that resisting idolatry is the right
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  and necessary path, and 2nd, that the nation as a whole would
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  be preserved and restored even if some individuals were to
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  perish. So it's a promise about God's
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  covenant faithfulness to his people as a group.
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  Exactly. His saving plan for them will
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  not be thwarted by this fiery trial and of course, the
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  appearance of that fourth figure in the furnace who looks like a
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  son of the gods. Often seen as a pre Incarnate
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  appearance of Christ. Right.
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  It reinforces the idea that God is with them in their suffering,
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  not just watching from a distance.
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  And we see the same pattern play out again in chapter 6 with
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  Daniel and the Lion's den. It's a very similar structure.
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  You have a conspiracy by jealous rivals.
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  You have Daniel defying an unjust law, this time about
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  prayer, and you have the threat of a gruesome execution.
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  The irony being they can't find any fault with his work, so they
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  have to attack his faith. Which is a huge compliment
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  really. And the law from King Darius
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  banning prayer to anyone but him for 30 days was just a setup.
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  A trap. And Daniel doesn't hide.
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  He prays publicly facing Jerusalem just as he always did.
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  It's that same resolved obedience.
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  Yes, and Yahweh intervenes again, shutting the mouths of
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  the lions. But there's a deeper layer here
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  that some point to this comparison of Daniel to a kind
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  of second Adam. OK, unpack that a little.
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  Well, in Genesis 1, Adam was given dominion over the beasts
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  of the field. He was meant to rule creation in
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  a harmonious way. The fall broke that.
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  So when God shuts the lion's mouth for Daniel, it's a
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  demonstration that Daniel, through his faithfulness, is
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  experiencing a temporary restoration of that righteous
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  Adamic dominion. The beasts are subject to him.
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  That's a fascinating connection. It's like a little preview of a
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  restored creation, and it sets the stage for the ultimate human
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  ruler, the Son of Man that we'll meet later on.
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  Absolutely. The book is already planting
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  these seeds, but the immediate effect of the deliverance is
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  once again on the Pagan king. Right Darius.
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  He's distraught when he has to throw Daniel in, and he's
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  overjoyed when he finds him alive.
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  And then he issues this incredible decree.
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  He declares that Yahweh is the living God, enduring forever,
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  whose Kingdom shall never be destroyed.
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  So once again, the faithfulness of an exile forces a Pagan
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  superpower to confess the truth about the God of Israel.
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  Yes, if these exiles can do that, it's proof for the whole
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  community that their God hasn't been defeated at all.
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  He is in complete sovereign control.
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  It's a message of profound security.
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  So that first section gives us the model for faithfulness, but
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  the next section, the center of the chiasm, shifts the camera,
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  so to speak. It focuses on the humbling of
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  these proud rulers. It's the other side of the same
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  coin, really. If God is going to protect his
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  people, he also has to be able to judge and control the
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  powerful people who oppress them.
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  And it starts with Nebuchadnezzar's own story in
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  chapter 4, which is told in the first person, which.
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  Is amazing in itself. He has this dream he can't get
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  out of his head. He's this huge, magnificent tree
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  that covers the whole earth, providing for everyone.
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  The very image of a successful, benevolent empire.
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  It is, but then a watcher, a holy one from heaven, comes down
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  and orders the tree to be chopped down because of the
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  King's pride. And when Daniel is called to
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  interpret this, he doesn't just deliver the bad news, he
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  actually gives the king an off ramp.
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  He gives him advice. He does, and the advice is
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  really telling. He tells Nebuchadnezzar to
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  practice righteousness and show mercy to the oppressed.
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  That's the ethical standard of the God of Israel.
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  It is. Daniel is calling a Pagan king
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  to govern with justice and compassion.
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  It shows that God holds all rulers accountable to a moral
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  standard, not just his own covenant people.
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  But of course, the king doesn't listen.
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  A year later, he's surveying his Kingdom and says, is not this
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  great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power for the
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  glory of my majesty? And that's the trigger, the sin
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  of self glorification, attributing to himself what God
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  had allowed him to have. And the judgement is immediate
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  and bizarre. He loses his mind.
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  He's driven out to live like an animal for seven years.
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  It's the perfect ironic judgement.
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  The man who saw himself as the pinnacle of humanity is reduced
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  to a bestial state. It's a shocking reversal of the
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  Dominion mandate. And it confirms what we see
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  later in the beast visions, that human rule, when it tries to
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  replace God, actually becomes less than human.
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  Exactly. But the climax of the chapter
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  isn't the judgement, it's his restoration.
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  After seven years, his sanity returns and he makes this
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  incredible confession. He praises the King of heaven
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  and says those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.
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  And he says the key phrase for the entire book, the Most High,
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  rules the Kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.
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  That line must have been like water in the desert for the
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  Exiles. Absolutely.
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  It meant that Babylon's power was not absolute, it was a
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  temporary assignment from Yahweh.
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  The rise and fall of empires isn't random chaos.
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  It's all part of a divine plan that gives you a bedrock of
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  security to stand on. So if Nebuchadnezzar is the
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  proud king who learns his lesson, Belshazzar in chapter 5
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  is the one who absolutely refuses to.
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  He's the perfect foil. Daniel explicitly calls him out
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  on it, saying he knew what happened to Nebuchadnezzar but
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  still didn't humble his heart. This isn't ignorance, it's
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  willful defiance. And an act of defiance is just
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  stunning in its arrogance. He's having a feast, gets drunk
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  and calls for the sacred vessels from the Jerusalem Temple.
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  And he and his court drink wine from them while praising their
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  gods of gold and silver. It's a direct physical assault
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  on the honor of Yahweh. He is lifting himself up against
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  the Lord of Heaven. And the judgement is just a
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  swift the fingers of a human hand appear and start writing on
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  the wall. And just like before, the King's
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  wise men are completely useless. They can't interpret it, which
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  again shows the bankruptcy of their Pagan wisdom.
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  So they have to call in Daniel. Right.
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  And before Daniel even tells him what it means, he gives him this
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  blistering sermon, reminding him of what happened to
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  Nebuchadnezzar and how he failed to learn from it.
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  And the message on the wall Men Menay tackle the Farsen is
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  basically you've been numbered, you've been weighed, you've been
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  found wanting and your Kingdom is and.
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  That very night, Belshazzar is killed and the Kingdom falls to
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  the Medes and Persians. The message for the Jews in
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  exile, then, seeing this contrast between the two kings,
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  is just so clear. Crystal clear.
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  Don't put your trust in this worldly superpower.
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  Don't be seduced by its wealth or it's gods.
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  These mighty kings only rule by Yahweh's permission for a
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  limited time. The empire that seems eternal
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  can fall in a single night. OK, so from these personal
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  stories of faithfulness and judgment, the book then zooms
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  out dramatically. We move to the big prophetic
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  visions that cover the whole scope of history.
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  We do. Chapters 2 and seven are the
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  structural and theological core of the book.
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  And we have to start by just acknowledging how supernatural
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  this is in chapter 2. Nebuchadnezzar doesn't just ask
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  for an interpretation of his dream.
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  No, he asked them to tell him the dream itself, which he's
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  forgotten. It's an impossible test designed
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  to expose them all as frauds. And Daniel's ability to do it
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  comes only after he and his friends pray.
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  It's a direct gift from God. Yes, and Daniel makes that very
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  clear. He says God is the one who
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  changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up
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  kings. That verse is basically the
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  thesis statement for the whole book, isn't it?
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  It really is. It affirms that history has a
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  divinely set course for a people who feel like their lives are
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  just adrift in the chaos of empire.
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  That is an anchor. So let's get to the dream
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  itself. This giant statue made of four
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  different metals, the. Statue is a symbol of the whole
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  succession of human governments that try to rule the world in
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  their own power, subverting God's original plan for
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  humanity. Daniel identifies the head of
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  gold as Babylon. Right then, the silver is the
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  Kingdom that follows, which is Media Persia.
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  The bronze is Greece under Alexander the Great, and then
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  the legs of iron, which crush everything, represent Rome.
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  And the feet are that strange mixture of iron and clay.
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  What's the significance there? It points to a fatal internal
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  weakness. The iron is still there, the raw
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  military crushing power, but it's mixed with brittle clay.
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  It suggests that this final human empire is unstable.
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  It's held together by force, but it lacks true cohesion.
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  It's strong and fragile at the same time.
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  Which makes it vulnerable. Exactly.
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  It's ready to be shattered. And that brings us to the climax
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  of the vision. This stone, cut out by no human
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  hand, smashes into the feet of the statue.
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  And the whole thing, iron, clay, bronze, silver, gold, it all
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  just collapses into dust. And that's the key.
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  The stone represents the Kingdom of God, and the fact that it's
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  cut without human hands means God establishes his Kingdom
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  without our help, without any political process or human
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  effort. It doesn't grow out of the human
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  kingdoms, it annihilates them. And then the stone rose into a
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  mountain that fills the whole earth.
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  Right, which is a clear reference back to fulfilling
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  Adam's original mandate to fill the earth and rule it
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  righteously under God. The message is simple.
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  Human empires will rise and fall, but God's Kingdom will
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  come and shall stand forever. OK, so that's the vision from
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  the human perspective, a glorious shining statue.
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  But then Chapter 7 gives us the same timeline from God's
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  perspective. Yes, and the imagery could not
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  be more different. Instead of magnificent statue,
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  Daniel sees 4 grotesque ravenous beasts coming up out of the sea.
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  Why? Beasts.
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  What's the point of that shift? The shift is the point.
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  The statue is how the kings see themselves.
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  Powerful, glorious, civilized, the beasts are how God sees them
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  as cruel, destructive, and fundamentally dehumanizing.
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  So we have the lion for Babylon, the bear for Media Persia, the
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  four headed leopard for Greece. And then this 4th beast, which
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  is so terrible it doesn't even have an earthly comparison, just
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  a ferocious iron toothed monster that devours and tramples
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  everything. That's Rome.
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  This is what human governance looks like when it's detached
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  from God. It's predatory.
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  And the vision zooms in on this fourth beast, and specifically
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  on a little horn that comes up among its 10 horns, right?
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  This little horn is a ruler who speaks, boats against God and
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  wages war on the Saints. And for a time, he's successful.
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  He represents that final ultimate anti God ruler who
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  tries to wipe out God's people. It's a period of intense
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  persecution, but then the scene shifts completely from earth to
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  heaven. Yes, you get this amazing scene
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  of the heavenly court. The Ancient of Days takes his
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  seat on a throne of fire. This is the ultimate
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  reassurance, isn't? It it is.
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  It tells the Exiles that no matter how chaotic things get on
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  earth, there is a throne in heaven and judgement is coming.
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  The court is seated, the books are open, and the beast is
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  slain. The dominion of all these human
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  empires is taken away. And then comes the real climax
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  of the vision, the introduction of this Figure 1.
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  Like a son of man. He comes with the clouds of
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  heaven, approaches the Ancient of Days, and is given
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  everlasting dominion and a Kingdom that will never be
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  destroyed. So who is this Son of Man?
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  Well, the term itself just means a human being.
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  It's meant to contrast him with the beasts.
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  Their rule was beastly. His will be truly human,
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  righteous and civilized. He's the new true Adam.
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  But there's more to it than that.
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  Because he's coming on the clouds.
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  Exactly. In the Old Testament, riding the
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  clouds is something only God does.
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  It's a mark of deity. So this figure is somehow both
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  fully human and fully divine. He's the God man.
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  He's the stone from the chapter 2 vision.
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  He is. He's the one who will crush the
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  kingdoms of this world. But then there's this
• 18:47
  interesting little twist in the interpretation that the Angel
• 18:50
  gives Daniel. It says the Saints of the Most
• 18:52
  High shall receive the Kingdom. Right.
• 18:54
  First it says the Son of Man receives it.
• 18:55
  Then it says the Saints receive it.
• 18:57
  So which is it? How do they both get it?
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  It shows the corporate nature of our union with Christ.
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  He is the representative King. The Saints reign because they
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  are united. To him, His victory becomes
• 19:08
  their victory. It's this incredible promise to
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  the Exiles that in the end, God's people, represented by
• 19:15
  their king, will be the ones who rule.
• 19:17
  So those big visions layout the whole timeline.
• 19:20
  The final section of the book, chapters 8 through 12, then
• 19:23
  zooms back in and add some very specific and difficult details.
• 19:27
  It does. It adds a layer of realism.
• 19:30
  The message becomes less about immediate comfort and more about
• 19:33
  the need for long term endurance through suffering.
• 19:36
  Chapter 8 gets very specific, detailing the conflict between
• 19:39
  the RAM, which is Media Persia, and the GOAT, which is Greece.
• 19:42
  Yes, the goat with the Big Horn that defeats the Ram is a clear
• 19:46
  picture of Alexander the Great and his lightning fast
• 19:48
  conquests. And then that horn is broken,
• 19:51
  and four horns come up. Alexander's Kingdom splits among
• 19:54
  his four generals, and from one of them comes another little
• 19:57
  horn. And this one is historically
• 19:59
  identifiable as. Antiochus Epiphanes, a Greek
• 20:02
  king who ruled in the 2nd century BC.
• 20:04
  And the vision predicts his actions with startling accuracy.
• 20:07
  It does. It predicts his vicious
• 20:09
  persecution of the Jews, his attempt to force them to adopt
• 20:13
  Greek culture, and his defilement of the Temple in
• 20:16
  Jerusalem, what he calls the abomination that makes desolate.
• 20:20
  It even predicts the length of time it would last.
• 20:22
  That level of detail must have been a powerful confirmation for
• 20:25
  the people reading it later that God really was in control of
• 20:28
  history. For sure, but the prophecies,
• 20:31
  especially in Chapter 11 then seem to move beyond Antiochus.
• 20:35
  He becomes a pattern or a type A.
• 20:37
  Type of what? Of the final, ultimate enemy of
• 20:40
  God's people. The description of the king who
• 20:43
  exalts himself above every God goes far beyond what Antiochus
• 20:45
  actually did. It's preparing God's people for
• 20:48
  a much longer, more intense struggle.
• 20:51
  The exile is, in a sense, being extended through history.
• 20:54
  Which brings us to Chapter 9 and the famous 70 weeks prophecy.
• 20:57
  It starts with Daniel reading Jeremiah's prophecy that the
• 21:00
  captivity would last 70 years, right?
• 21:03
  And he praised his beautiful prayer of confession, basically
• 21:06
  asking God to act. Now that the 70 years are almost
• 21:09
  up, he's expecting restoration. But the Angel Gabriel comes and
• 21:12
  gives him an answer that must have been just, well, mind
• 21:15
  blowing. It must have been.
• 21:17
  Gabriel tells him that the full period of discipline isn't 70
• 21:20
  years, but 70 weeks. Or more accurately, 70 sevens,
• 21:25
  490 years. So the physical return from
• 21:28
  Babylon isn't the final end point.
• 21:30
  Not even close. It's just a down payment, the
• 21:33
  true final restoration that deals with sin once and for all
• 21:37
  and brings in everlasting righteousness that requires
• 21:40
  something much bigger, much later.
• 21:43
  The 490 years are the new timeline.
• 21:45
  And the timeline points to a very specific event.
• 21:48
  It does. It says that after 69 of those
• 21:50
  weeks or 483 years, the anointed 1, the Messiah, will be cut off
• 21:55
  or put to death. And that timeline, calculated
• 21:58
  from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, lines up remarkably
• 22:01
  well with the life and death of Jesus.
• 22:02
  It's one of the most stunningly specific messianic prophecies in
• 22:05
  the Old Testament. But even after the Messiah is
• 22:08
  cut off, the prophecy says the struggle continues.
• 22:10
  Right. It talks about a Prince who is
• 22:12
  to come, who will destroy the city and the sanctuary.
• 22:15
  Which is almost certainly a reference to the Roman
• 22:17
  destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 8070.
• 22:20
  So the message is, even after the Messiah's first coming, the
• 22:24
  people of God will still be in a state of conflict with the
• 22:26
  beastly kingdoms of the world. This long period of struggle,
• 22:30
  then, has a purpose. Yes, the later chapters make it
• 22:33
  clear this is a process of refinement, of purification.
• 22:37
  The Saints will suffer, but it's meant to test them and cleanse
• 22:40
  them and make them ready for the Kingdom.
• 22:42
  And final deliverance comes, as Chapter 12 says, when Michael
• 22:45
  the Archangel arises. And that's when you get the
• 22:48
  final crucial piece of the whole puzzle, the promise of
• 22:53
  resurrection. Many of those who sleep in the
• 22:55
  dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and
• 22:58
  some to shame and everlasting contempt.
• 23:00
  This is the climax of it all. The promises made way back to
• 23:03
  Abraham can't be fully realized for all the Saints who have died
• 23:07
  throughout history until the resurrection.
• 23:09
  That's when the extended exile finally, truly ends, and a whole
• 23:13
  new era begins. It's a message that goes so far
• 23:16
  beyond just getting back to Jerusalem.
• 23:18
  It points to the end of all things.
• 23:20
  It's the ultimate hope, not just for political safety, but for a
• 23:24
  perfected, resurrected life in a new creation, all made possible
• 23:29
  through the victory of the Son of Man.
• 23:31
  So when you pull it all together, the big conclusion of
• 23:33
  Daniel is just how completely, completely God centered it is.
• 23:35
  It's entirely theocentric. It is the message to the Exiles
• 23:40
  and to us is that human rulers, presidents, kings, they do not
• 23:45
  control their own destiny. They have a brief moment of
• 23:47
  authority granted to them by Yahweh, who was working out his
• 23:50
  own master schedule for history. And the hope the book gives
• 23:54
  isn't a naive one. It doesn't promise an easy life.
• 23:57
  No, it's a very realistic hope. It confirms that this historical
• 24:00
  struggle we find ourselves in, this long exile, isn't appointed
• 24:04
  time for God to refine his people.
• 24:06
  But it also confirms that victory is certain.
• 24:08
  It will be decisive and final when the Kingdom of God brought
• 24:11
  by the Son of Man comes to crush all opposition and establish his
• 24:15
  righteous rule forever. And if Babylon and Rome were
• 24:18
  types of worldly opposition to God, then it seems every period
• 24:22
  of trial we face, whether it's political chaos or cultural
• 24:25
  pressure, is part of that same story.
• 24:27
  It can feel like we're in exile, but Daniel assures us our hope
• 24:30
  isn't in a political fix. It's fixed on the end goal that
• 24:34
  this testing is meant to purify us, to make us ready for that
• 24:37
  day when God's promises are completely fulfilled and the
• 24:39
  righteous are raised from the dead to finally see their King
• 24:42
  and reign with him.