In the Book of Daniel, chapter 7, Daniel watches empires rise like monsters out of the sea.
They aren’t described as dignified rulers or refined civilizations.
They’re beasts.
Not just animals.
Something unnatural.
Something unprecedented.
A lion with eagle’s wings.
A bear devouring.
A leopard with four heads.
And then a fourth beast — terrifying beyond description.
Each one more dominant than the last.
Because that’s what it takes, it seems, for one kingdom to overtake another.
To survive, you have to become more brutal than what came before you.
And if you read carefully, you notice something interesting:
We’re never told definitively which kingdoms the first beasts represent.
They’re intentionally a little obscure.
What if that obscurity isn’t accidental?
What if those beasts don’t just represent ancient empires—
—but also what happens inside of you and me?
Because here’s the pattern of history:
Every human empire eventually becomes a beast.
Why?
Because power without God’s guidance makes us lose our humanity.
Every time we build a world without God at the center, we do not become more human.
We become less human.
And that isn’t just geopolitical.
It’s personal.
There is chaos in the world.
But there is also chaos inside us.
There is a beast in the sea.
But there can also be a beast in our hearts.
The Interruption
Then, in verses 13–14, everything changes.
Daniel writes:
“I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming…”
The scene shifts from earth to heaven.
The Ancient of Days is seated on His throne.
And one like a Son of Man approaches Him.
This is Jesus.
The title “Son of Man” is the one Jesus used most often for Himself. When He spoke of coming on the clouds, He was pointing back to this very moment.
Clouds marked His ascension.
Clouds will mark His return.
And here in Daniel’s vision, He is escorted into the royal presence of the Father and given full authority, dominion, and an everlasting kingdom.
This kingdom does not rise from the earth.
It comes from heaven.
It is everlasting.
It will never be replaced.
It will never evolve into something monstrous.
Stunned by God’s ways
Here is the stunning part:
God’s answer to the beasts was not a larger beast.
He didn’t counter brutality with greater brutality.
His answer was a human.
The Son of Man.
A true human.
A human who absorbed the violence of earthly kingdoms.
A human who suffered under beastly power.
A human against whom they unleashed everything they had.
They used betrayal.
They used humiliation.
They used torture.
They used death.
And for a moment, it looked like the beasts had won.
But they underestimated the power of perfect humanity.
Jesus Christ.
Fully human.
Fully God.
Fragile enough to be killed.
Unbreakable enough to rise again.
Humanity as it was always meant to be.
Humanity—not brutality—is heaven’s healing power.
When earthly kingdoms crushed Him, they thought they had silenced Him.
But resurrection exposed the truth.
The beasts were powerful enough to kill Him.
But they were never powerful enough to keep Him dead.
.
The end of the beginning
And this is where Daniel’s vision stops being about kingdoms out there…
…and starts being about the kingdom in here.
Because the question Daniel leaves us with is not:
Will the Son of Man rule?
He will.
The question is:
Will He rule you?
You are either living with a beast ruling your heart…
or with the Son of Man.
And whoever rules your heart
can only take you where they came from.
The beasts come from the earth.
They will take you to fear.
To control.
To anxiety.
To emptiness.
Because that’s where they came from.
But the Son of Man comes from heaven.
And if He rules your heart,
He will take you there too.
Toward peace.
Toward life.
Toward restoration.
Toward becoming fully human again.
Because in the end, God’s answer to the beasts was not more violence.
It was Jesus.
Not another animal.
A man.
And He is still restoring what the beasts tried to take—
our humanity,
our identity,
and who we were created to be.
phillipbrande.com 