Week 51 Discussion Guide: The Son of Man's Kingdom

Opening

Begin by reciting this week’s memory verse together:

“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.” – Daniel 7:14 (ESV)

Think about the most powerful institution or system you have ever encountered – a government, a corporation, an empire in a history book – something that seemed permanent, unshakable, beyond challenge. Now consider: where is it now? Or if it still stands, how long will it last? Hold that sense of imperial transience as we discuss a kingdom the Old Testament insists will never end, given to a figure who is simultaneously the most human and the most divine person the prophets can envision.

Review: The Big Picture

This week the Old Testament reached its most exalted vision of the coming king. Daniel 7 opened with chaos – four beasts rising from the sea, each more terrifying than the last, crushing nations with iron teeth and brazen claws. Then the scene shifted to a throne room where the Ancient of Days took his seat, the books were opened, and a figure “like a son of man” arrived on the clouds of heaven to receive universal, everlasting dominion. Daniel 8 continued the parade of empires – Persia and Greece named centuries before they existed – underscoring that world history is governed, not random. Daniel 9 and 12 returned to the anointed one cut off and the resurrection of the dead: the grave is a pause, not a period. Zechariah 14 placed the LORD’s descent on the Mount of Olives – the mountain splitting, living waters flowing, the LORD reigning as king over all the earth. And Isaiah 11 and 2 gave us the peaceable kingdom: a shoot from Jesse’s stump, the sevenfold Spirit, wolves dwelling with lambs, swords beaten into plowshares, and war made unthinkable by a king whose justice is trusted by every nation.

The empires that seemed eternal have all fallen. The kingdom Daniel saw has not even begun to decline.

Discussion Questions

Day 1: The Four Beasts and the Son of Man (Daniel 7:1-28)

1. Beasts from the Sea. The four empires emerge from the chaotic sea – a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a fourth beyond naming. Each seems permanent to those who live under it. What does the beast imagery communicate about the nature of human empire that a more neutral description would not? What is Daniel saying about the character, not merely the power, of earthly kingdoms?

2. The Cloud-Rider. The Son of Man comes “with the clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7:13) – a mode of travel the Old Testament reserves for God alone (Psalm 104:3; Isaiah 19:1). Yet the title bar enash simply means “a human being.” How does this paradox – a man who rides clouds, a human who receives divine prerogative – prepare the reader for the incarnation? Why is the double meaning essential rather than accidental?

3. Books Opened. “The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7:10). Every act of every empire is recorded. Every injustice has been documented. How does the image of opened books speak to those who live under regimes where injustice goes unpunished and power operates without accountability?

Day 2: The Ram and the Goat (Daniel 8:1-27)

1. Named Before Born. Daniel 8 identifies Persia and Greece by symbol centuries before they dominate the world stage. The vision underscores that history is not random but governed. How does this conviction – that God sees the end from the beginning and raises and fells empires at will – function as comfort rather than fatalism? What is the difference between sovereignty and determinism in the way Daniel presents it?

2. Horns That Break. The great horn of the goat (Alexander) breaks at the height of its power, and four horns replace it. Empires fracture even at the peak of their strength. What does the pattern of imperial fragmentation reveal about the inherent instability of human power? How does this pattern make Daniel 7:14’s “everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away” all the more remarkable?

Day 3: The Anointed One Cut Off and the Resurrection (Daniel 9:20-27; 12:1-13)

1. Cross Before Crown. Daniel 9:26 says the anointed one will be “cut off and shall have nothing,” and Daniel 12:2 promises resurrection from the dust. The Son of Man who receives everlasting dominion first suffers – cut off from the living. How does the sequence – death, then dominion; cross, then crown – challenge expectations of what messianic victory looks like? Why must the king die before he reigns?

2. A Personal Promise. “You shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days” (Daniel 12:13). The angel speaks to Daniel personally: you will die, you will rest, you will rise. How does the individual specificity of this promise – not merely “the dead shall rise” but “you shall stand” – change the way you think about your own death and what lies beyond it?

Day 4: The LORD Descends (Zechariah 14:1-21)

1. The Mountain That Splits. Zechariah 14 places God’s descent on the Mount of Olives – a specific geographic location east of Jerusalem. The mountain divides, living waters flow, and the LORD is king over all the earth. Why does the prophet insist on geographic precision? What does it mean that the consummation of all things is tied to a real place on a real map – the same mountain from which Jesus ascended (Acts 1:11-12)?

2. One LORD, One Name. “On that day the LORD will be one and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9). The fractured loyalties, the multiplied idolatries, the endless compromises – all resolved. What would it look like for the LORD to be “one” in your own life – not competing with other allegiances but reigning without rival? What idolatries, subtle or overt, does this verse expose?

Day 5: The Peaceable Kingdom (Isaiah 11:1-16; 2:1-5)

1. The Stump That Sprouts. Isaiah 11 begins with a stump – Jesse’s dynasty cut down, apparently dead. But a shoot springs from it, and the Spirit rests upon the shoot with sevenfold fullness. What does the image of a stump suggest about the apparent failure of God’s promises? How does the shoot from a dead stump become the most hopeful image in the Old Testament?

2. Wolves and Lambs. “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). This is not sentiment – it is eschatology. What would a world look like where predation itself is undone? How does this vision extend the scope of redemption beyond human souls to the biological order itself?

3. Swords into Plowshares. “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4). War does not end because humanity evolves past it. War ends because a king arrives whose justice is so trusted that weapons become absurd. How does this challenge both militaristic and pacifistic approaches to conflict? What does it mean that peace is not the absence of power but the presence of a perfectly just ruler?

Synthesis

1. The Title He Chose. Jesus used “Son of Man” more than eighty times in the Gospels – more than any other self-designation. He used it to claim authority, predict suffering, and announce his return. Before the high priest, he quoted Daniel 7:13-14 directly, and the high priest tore his robes (Mark 14:62). Why do you think Jesus preferred this title? What does it hold together that no other title – Messiah, Lord, Son of God – quite captures?

Going Deeper: Connections Across the Week

• The Paradox of the Son of Man. Daniel 7’s Son of Man is simultaneously the most human and the most divine figure in the Old Testament’s prophetic vision. The title means “a human being” – yet he rides clouds, receives worship, and holds everlasting dominion. The paradox is not a problem to solve but a mystery to inhabit. The incarnation does not resolve the tension; it deepens it. The man who hungered, wept, bled, and died is the one Daniel saw receiving authority from the Ancient of Days. Every attempt to collapse the paradox – to make Jesus merely divine or merely human – loses the very thing the title was designed to hold together.

• Empire as Theology. Daniel does not merely predict the sequence of empires; he interprets their nature. They are beasts – predatory, chaotic, rising from the sea of disorder. They devour and crush. They stamp what remains with their feet. The theological claim is that all human empire, however impressive, participates in the beastly – it relies on violence, accumulates through conquest, and secures its power through fear. The Son of Man’s kingdom is qualitatively different: it is given, not seized; it is everlasting, not temporary; it encompasses all peoples, not through subjugation but through a justice so complete that even the created order is transformed. The beasts rise from below. The Son of Man descends from above.

• The Geography of Consummation. Zechariah 14 places the climax on the Mount of Olives. Isaiah 2 places it on “the mountain of the house of the LORD.” Isaiah 11 traces it to the stump of Jesse – Bethlehem’s royal line. The consummation is not abstract. It is tied to places, to a lineage, to a mountain the disciples could see from the temple courts. The same mountain that split in Zechariah’s vision is the one from which Jesus ascended, and the angels said he would return “in the same way” (Acts 1:11). The prophets were not painting allegories. They were marking coordinates.

Application

• Personal: Daniel 7 reveals that every empire you fear is temporary. The political anxieties, the cultural shifts, the powers that seem permanent and unchallengeable – they are beasts with an expiration date. This week, identify the “empire” that most occupies your worry. Then read Daniel 7:14 aloud. The kingdom given to the Son of Man shall not be destroyed. Let that conviction – not naivete but prophetic certainty – reshape the proportion of your fear.

• Relational: Isaiah 11’s peaceable kingdom begins with the Spirit resting on the king – wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the LORD. That same Spirit dwells in you (Romans 8:9). This week, bring the Spirit’s character into one difficult relationship. Where there is conflict, ask for wisdom. Where there is misunderstanding, ask for counsel. Where there is fear, ask for might. The peaceable kingdom begins with the people who carry the King’s Spirit.

• Formational: Isaiah 2:4 envisions a world where nations “learn war no more.” The opposite of war is not merely peace; it is a new kind of learning. This week, ask yourself: what am I learning? What habits, assumptions, and reflexes am I being trained in – by media, by culture, by my own anxieties? What would it look like to begin un-learning the habits of empire and learning instead the habits of the kingdom the Son of Man brings?

Closing Prayer

Close your time together by praying through Daniel 7:13-14. Praise the Ancient of Days who sits on a throne no beast can approach. Thank him for the Son of Man – the one who shares our humanity and holds divine authority, who was cut off and is alive, who ascended from the Mount of Olives and will return to it. Ask for eyes to see past the empires that dominate the headlines to the kingdom that outlasts them all. Pray for the peace Isaiah envisioned – wolves and lambs, swords and plowshares – and ask the Spirit to begin that peace in your own heart, your own home, your own community, as a foretaste of the world the Son of Man will bring when he comes in the clouds with great power and glory.

Looking Ahead

Next week we arrive at the final week of this year-long study – From Garden to City. Isaiah will announce new heavens and a new earth. Ezekiel will show us a river flowing from God’s temple, deepening as it goes, healing everything it touches – even the Dead Sea. The tree of life, barred since Genesis 3, will reappear as a forest lining both banks. And the city’s name will answer the question the entire Bible has been asking: Yahweh Shammah – “The LORD Is There.” The story that began with God creating ends with God dwelling. Come and see how it finishes.