"And There Was Given Him"
Daniel 7:13—14
“And There Was Given Him”
One led in and handed a kingdom is no equal of the Giver
A Son handed a kingdom --- and handing it back at the end --- is the Father’s King, not a second God.
--- The Standing Stone ---
Behind “LORD” in your Bible lies a hidden name --- in the Hebrew it is Yahuah Psalm 83:18**; Yahuah is the Father** Isaiah 63:16**; Yahuah is the only God, beside Him there is no other** Isaiah 45:5**; therefore Yahuah the Father is the only true God, leaving no room for a second or third person** 1 Corinthians 8:6**.**
Part One
Two Visions, One Story: The Stone and the Son of Man
Before we weigh any argument, we have to see what kind of passage this is. Daniel 7 is a prophecy of history. In a night vision Daniel watched four great beasts come up out of a churning sea --- and he was told plainly what they were: “four kings, which shall arise out of the earth” (Daniel 7:17). Four kingdoms, rising one after another. The vision is a map of the empires of men.
Daniel had already seen this same story once before, in chapter 2. There a great image stood made of four metals --- gold, silver, brass, and iron --- four kingdoms again. And then something struck it.
Daniel 2:34—35
A stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image… and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Daniel explained the stone himself: “the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed… and it shall stand for ever” (Daniel 2:44). The stone is the Kingdom of God. It comes after the four kingdoms of men, it breaks them in pieces, and it fills the whole earth.
Now hold the two visions side by side. In chapter 2, after four kingdoms, the God of heaven sets up a stone-kingdom that fills the earth. In chapter 7, after four kingdoms, a Kingdom is given to the son of man. It is the same story and the same Kingdom --- the Kingdom of God, breaking into history once the empires of men have run their course.
Daniel 7:13—14
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
So the question the vision is really answering is not “who is God?” It is “who receives the Kingdom of God when it comes?”
Part Two
When the Kingdom Came: Up in the Clouds
Watch carefully which way the son of man is moving. He “came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.” He is not coming down to the earth. He is going up --- into the throne room, into the presence of the Ancient of Days. The clouds carry him toward God.
This happened in history, and we were told exactly how. After Yahushua rose from the dead, His disciples watched Him leave.
Acts 1:9
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
He went up in a cloud. That is the coming with the clouds Daniel saw --- the Messiah ascending to the Ancient of Days to receive the Kingdom. And the messengers who stood by told the disciples He would one day return in like manner as they had seen Him go into heaven (Acts 1:11). He left in the clouds, going up; He will come again in the clouds, coming down.
Then the Kingdom came with power. Yahushua had promised that some standing with Him would not taste death “till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1). At Shavuot it came: the risen and exalted Yahushua, now seated at the Father’s right hand, poured out the Spirit, and Peter proclaimed that Yahuah had made the crucified Yahushua both Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:33, 36). This is what so many today have never been taught --- the Kingdom of God did not stay a distant promise. It broke in. The stone had struck; the door stood open for people of every nation to enter.
So Daniel 7 is not a snapshot of two Gods in heaven. It is the moment the risen Messiah was handed the Kingdom --- a Kingdom He reigns over now, and will bring with Him when He returns.
Part Three
The Word It Skips: Who Gives and Who Receives
Only now, with the whole story in view, can we see why the second-God reading fails. The argument says: the son of man comes on the clouds (and Yahuah rides the clouds), he receives everlasting dominion, and all nations serve him --- so he must be a second divine person, a second Yahuah.
But we have already followed those clouds. They carried Him up to the throne to be given the Kingdom --- the very opposite of a God coming down. And the reading walks straight past the one word the verse keeps pressing on us: given. “There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom.”
Ask of every line: who acts, and who is acted upon? The Ancient of Days sits down (Daniel 7:9); the thrones are set and the books are opened (Daniel 7:10); He gives (Daniel 7:14). Every act of authority belongs to Him. The son of man, by contrast, comes, is brought near, and is given. In Daniel’s own Aramaic the difference is plain.
יְהִיב
yehiv
was given --- a passive form; the dominion did not belong to him, it was handed to him (Daniel 7:14).
קְרֵב
qereb
to bring near; in 7:13 he is led in and presented before the throne --- he does not arrive as its occupant.
The One on the throne does the giving. The one led before Him does the receiving. And a gift proves the opposite of equality --- you cannot be handed what is already yours, and you do not receive a kingdom from someone who is your equal.
Part Four
The Saints Hold the Same Kingdom
If any doubt remains, the next verses remove it. The very same Kingdom given to the son of man is given, a few lines later, to the people of Yahuah.
Daniel 7:18
But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
Daniel 7:27
And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
Lay verse 27 beside verse 14. The kingdom is given --- the same word. It is everlasting --- the same word Daniel used of the stone-kingdom the God of heaven sets up (Daniel 2:44), which is plainly not God. And “all dominions shall serve” --- the same Aramaic word used of the son of man.
פְּלַח
pelach
to serve, to render allegiance --- the service owed a king who has been given a kingdom (Daniel 7:14, 27).
Notice why that service is owed: it follows the gift. The nations serve him because the Kingdom was given to him --- borrowed authority handed down from the throne, not authority he holds in himself. And every mark the second-God reading leaned on --- given, everlasting, served by all --- is spoken one breath later over “the people of the saints of the most High.”
So the test collapses. If “given an everlasting kingdom that all serve” makes the son of man God, then it makes the redeemed people God too. No one believes that. These marks never proved deity --- they prove a Kingdom handed down from the throne to those whom Yahuah chooses to exalt.
That is why he is “one like a son of man.” Against the four beasts --- the brutal kingdoms of men --- he is the human one, and the Kingdom that falls to him falls to his people with him. He receives it as the representative man, the firstfruits of all who enter --- not as a second God who held it all along.
And he is not alone in this role. At Sodom, “Yahuah rained fire from Yahuah out of heaven” (Genesis 19:24). In the Psalms, “Yahuah said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand” (Psalm 110:1). In the wilderness, Yahuah sent an angel with His name in him, to be obeyed (Exodus 23:20—21). The pattern never changes: a Sender and a sent one, a Giver and a receiver.
Part Five
He Gives the Kingdom Back
There is one last piece, and it is the sharpest of all. The Kingdom the son of man receives, he does not hold forever in his own right. At the end, he gives it back.
1 Corinthians 15:24, 28
Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father… And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
The Messiah reigns until every enemy is under his feet, and then he delivers the Kingdom up to the Father and is himself made subject to Him. The same Kingdom that was placed into his hands in Daniel’s vision is, at the last, handed back to the One who gave it.
Let that settle it. A second God does not need to be handed a kingdom, and a second God does not give it back and make himself subject, “that God may be all in all.” Only a faithful Son does that. The whole arc --- a Kingdom received when He ascended, and a Kingdom returned at the end --- is the story of a King under His Father, never a second God beside Him.
Conclusion
The Verdict
Stand back and watch the whole story. Four kingdoms of men rise and fall. Then a stone cut without hands strikes them and becomes a mountain that fills the earth --- the Kingdom of God. The risen Messiah ascends in the clouds to the Ancient of Days, is given that Kingdom, and pours out His Spirit so that people of every nation may enter it.
And at the last He delivers it back to the Father and is Himself made subject, that Yahuah may be all in all. A Kingdom received, and a Kingdom returned. That is the shape of a faithful Son and King --- never the shape of a second God.
A Son who is given the Kingdom, and hands it back at the end, is the Father’s appointed King --- not a second God beside Him.