[9] As I watched,

thrones were set in place,

and an Ancient One took his throne,

his clothing was white as snow,

and the hair of his head like pure wool;

his throne was fiery flames,

and its wheels were burning fire.

[10] A stream of fire issued

and flowed out from his presence.

A thousand thousands served him,

and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him.

The court sat in judgment,

and the books were opened.

—–

[13] As I watched in the night visions,

I saw one like a human being

coming with the clouds of heaven.

And he came to the Ancient One

and was presented before him.

[14] To him was given dominion

and glory and kingship,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion

that shall not pass away,

and his kingship is one

that shall never be destroyed.

——————–

This is the Track 2 Old Testament selection to be read aloud on the twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost, also called the Last Sunday or Christ the King Sunday [Proper 29], Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. For a church following the Track 2 path, this reading will be followed by Psalm 93, where David sang, “Yahweh is King; he has put on splendid apparel; Yahweh has put on his apparel and girded himself with strength.” That pair will precede a reading from John’s Revelation, where he wrote of Yahweh saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” and, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” All will accompany the Gospel reading from John, where Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

I wrote about this reading selection the last time it came up in the lectionary cycle (2018), and I posted those views on my website at that time. I see this reading from a different perspective now, which does nothing to diminish my opinions of three years ago. Because these selected verses tell of a dream and are therefore metaphor that is not clear in meaning, it has become the focus of all kinds of wild thoughts. It is easy to be absorbed in that mentality. If you would like to read my 2018 commentary, it can be seen by searching this site. I will now offer a variation to that theme. Feel free to read this and that and make comparisons.

To even begin to understand these four verses, one has to read the whole of Daniel’s seventh chapter. The theme of this chapter is a vision of four beasts, which is a focus that is absent in these verses read. Still, verses nine and ten are words spoken by one of the four beasts. The omitted eleventh and twelfth verses are Daniel speaking about that beast being destroyed and the other three beasts losing what powers they possessed. Then, Daniel speaks verses thirteen and fourteen. While everything is metaphor and easily misunderstood, Daniel explains his dream in verses fifteen through twenty-eight. He made these verses read aloud clearer in what he wrote in verses twenty-one and twenty-two.

In those two verses, Daniel literally wrote this: “[21] was watching I and horn this [of the beasts] , was making war against the saints [or sacred, holy] , prevailing against them . [22] until that came , ancient of days , and judgment was made to the saints on high , and the time came for the kingdom to possess the saints .”

When the Gospel reading for Christ the King Sunday is read, where Pilate is asking Jesus , “Are you the king of the Jews?” these two verses of Daniel’s explanation of his dream need to make it clear that the war of the beasts is the earthly attacks on souls, in an attempt to steal souls away from Yahweh. This ongoing war is always finding human souls suffering more defeats than victories. The turn in the tide of battle comes when the judgment of Yahweh is for each individual soul who submits to Him in divine marriage, so each and every saint individually becomes a kingdom ruled by Jesus the king, with the host soul submitting to his will. Thus, Daniel was saying the same thing as Jesus told Pilate, when he said, “My kingdom is not from this world.” A soul is not matter; but a soul has dominion over the flesh that is its body. It is the submission of that dominion – self-control – that marries a soul to Yahweh’s Spirit. At that point the “judgment” is the resurrection of His Son to be king of that soul, thereby lead that body of flesh to a righteous way of living.

With this new view of the beasts added to my understanding, the symbolism of “four” must be seen as an indication of the four elements of the earthly realm: Water, Earth, Air, and Fire. Each beast then reflects one aspect of the world, which becomes the “gods” or “elohim” that human being submit to, as each is a necessity for life on earth. This makes the repetition of the words denoting “Fire” important, as that is a reflection on the transformation of matter, changing from one state to another. It is then in this transitionary state that Yahweh – the Ancient one, who Created all in six “days” – came to pass judgment on those of His angels [elohim] who had disobeyed His command that mankind be served by His angels [Yahweh elohim].

Thus, the arrogance coming from the “horn” of the lead beast [Satan] tells of the judgment that cast Satan into the depths of the earth. The other three beasts were still in allegiance to Satan, but they were stripped of their abilities to attack human souls. All they could do was tempt souls to seek their gifts.

In verse ten, which ends with the words that say, “and the books were opened,” I wrote in 2018 about this being reference to the Akashic Record. While that is certainly applicable, as the Akashic Record is the Godhead and appeared to Moses when he was allowed to understand Creation and all the times prior to his coming to serve Yahweh, the plural number in “books” must be seen as ever book that would come, after Satan and his fallen angels were denied free reign over human souls. Thus the judgment against the four beasts was prehistoric, happening before the “books were opened,” telling of Yahweh and a need for souls to be led to Him in marriage. That marriage is then the making of a “saint,” from an ordinary soul.

From that understanding, which verses eleven and twelve state rather clearly (in metaphor), verses thirteen and fourteen are then Daniel being shown the soul of Jesus being sent by Yahweh to make those saints or holy human beings. This means the kingdom of Jesus existed after Satan was cast into the inner earth, with his supporting angels stripped of any powers to threaten human beings [souls in flesh] as lesser creatures. The soul of Jesus (unnamed as that soul was to Daniel) would allow human beings to elevate their common souls to the level of elohim, making them be equals to the beasts, who were elohim without material form. Prior to the initial coming of Jesus (which can be seen as the descending of Adam and Eve into the world), the beasts had possessed human souls, making giants and monsters that were hybrids that would cause the need for a Great Flood to eliminate. In a similar way, the hybrids that would become saints and holy men and women – all possessed by the soul of Jesus (unnamed) – would be those who would fight against the hybrids whose souls would have been sold to the four beasts, having fallen prey to their influences and therefore demonically possessed.

When this reading is seen as an alternate to the Second Samuel reading, which is David’s last song before his death, this view of Daniel’s vision should be seen reflected in David’s lyrics that sing, “But the godless are all like thorns that are thrown away; for they cannot be picked up with the hand; to touch them one uses an iron bar or the shaft of a spear. And they are entirely consumed in fire on the spot.” Those verses sing of the possession of souls by demon spirits. They prevent souls from finding the completeness that comes from marriage to Yahweh and being possessed spiritually by His Son, their bodies of flesh becoming the kingdoms for Jesus.

There, David sang:

“The spirit of the Lord speaks through me, his word is upon my tongue. The el of Israel has spoken, the cornerstone of Israel has said to me: One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of elohim, is like the light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land.”

This is parallel Scripture to Daniel writing: “I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven” and “ To him was given dominion and glory and kingship.” David knew the same ethereal presence of a possessing soul, who had dominion over his body of flesh. The people led by David would become just like David, as those Who Retained Yahweh as His elohim [the meaning of the name “Israel”].

It is this vision of Daniel that led John to proclaim: “Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.” That sings not of some distant future, where some physical Jesus will come floating down from the sky and clouds to slay all the beasts of the world. Instead, it sings of the possessing soul of Jesus coming spiritually into one’s own soul. That presence will allow those souls of flesh to understand Scripture, led by the Mind of Christ. Those who “pierced him” are the demonically possessed “thorns” that mix with the other souls in flesh like weeds choking out the green grass [grains for spiritual bread]. When John wrote those words, countless other souls had hailed the coming of Yahweh as His Son; and, this would always be the case for souls celebrating marriage to Yahweh, receiving His Spirit.

As the Track 2 Old Testament reading to be read aloud on the last Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry for Yahweh should already be well underway, the lesson is to see the urgency of judgment. Those elohim who were punished by Yahweh, as the King of all Creation [including His angels], mirror the same judgment that will come to souls who have married the elohim of Satan, being possessed by unclean spirits. Daniel was shown the path that averts damnation, as only eternal entities are judged (not bodies of dead matter). This means Daniel was show a prophecy of your soul’s judgment. The way of the beast of arrogance is the judgment to be expected for the wicked. To avoid that, one needs to see the one like a man becoming you, as Jesus reborn into your flesh, possessing divinely your souls, making you sacred and holy – a Saint.