Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
32And he will corrupt evil doers of [the] covenant in flatteries, and [the] people ones knowing their God will be strong and do. 33People being wise will instruct many, and they will be staggered by sword and in flame, in captivity and in spoiling [for] days. 34Those being staggered will be helped [with] a little help and many will join themselves to them in hypocrisy. 35And [some] from ones being wise will be staggered to refine them and to purify and to make white upon [the] time of the end, because yet [will be] to the set time.
As we’re observing Daniel’s “people who know their God,” there is yet much to learn from these few simple verses. First of all, isn’t it interesting to remind ourselves it is the angel speaking in these verses? He is the one who actually calls us “the people who know their God.” Wow. Here is a perfect, holy angel. Once again, I can’t even imagine what we must look like to him. He sees us in all our struggles. He sees the numberless ways we fail God all day every day. He sees our rebellion, all the times we cringe in fear when we ought to be trusting. He sees our lust and our laziness. He sees our ignorance. As I’ve said before, I wonder if we even stink!
And yet, this perfect holy angel who stands in the presence of God can look at you and me and call us “the people who know their God!” How can that be? He’s an angel. He truly does “know God.” Surely he can see how far we fall short of even that simple appellation. And yet still he calls us “the people who know their God!” How can that be? I hope we all know the answer: Grace. Here before us is just one more example of an angel showing us the same grace, the same undeserved love and kindness and mercy of Jesus Himself.
For me, somehow I can understand God showing me grace, but it amazes me to think these angels who are even now standing around me actually truly love me – that, like Jesus, they see me in all of my sinfulness and yet look past it all. It’s not as if they do their ministry for me, disgusted and wishing God would give them another assignment, like singing in the heavenly choir. No, they’re glad to do it! They actually love you and me. How amazing God is! Grace flows out of His giant heart and fills heaven itself, all the way to the very angels who are even now protecting you and me. What a day it will be when we join them, finally delivered from our sinfulness and standing beside them, ourselves in their same perfect holiness! What will it be like to meet those who’ve known us best in this world, the ones who were always there, protecting us, helping us? We’ll meet them, learn their name, give them a hug, then get to spend all eternity thanking them!
Then, he says, “Those who are wise will instruct many…” “Those who are wise” could be translated as “ones who understand.” Where does wisdom and understanding come from? From knowing our Bibles. And when we’ve invested time in those Bibles and as we’ve let the Lord teach us, what is an inevitable result? “They will instruct many.” What a hopeful thought! I think I speak for all of us when I would say anytime the Lord teaches me something, there’s that part of me that wants to shout it to the whole world! His love and joy and peace are so wonderful, I look around and wish everyone else could see what He has shown me!
Yet, like probably most of us, I certainly don’t feel like I make much difference. I’m not a Billy Graham. When I even try to tell someone else what God has taught me, I rarely ever walk away with any sense that they understood what I was saying. To put it bluntly, if you’re like me, you probably feel pretty useless. However, verses like this have for many years been my encouragement. As you and I grow to be more like Jesus, even if we don’t know it, the fact is we are “instructing many.” We simply don’t know what the Lord is doing with our example. We don’t know who is watching. We don’t know who the Lord has been drawing.
I would suggest that most of the time we don’t even know the Lord used us. When Jesus says, “When I was naked, you clothed me…,” what do the people on His right ask? “When did we see you naked and clothe you?” Whatever it was they did, they don’t even know they did it! Looking at my own life, that is not hard to understand. I would say the greatest influences in my life have come from people who didn’t know I was watching, and it wasn’t necessarily anything they even said. It was who they were, the way they were. The Lord used a particular man to soften my stony heart so that a short time later He could save me. He was “just” a pipe salesman, but as he hung around our job site I was moved by what a kind, peaceful person he was. Somehow I could tell he was a Christian and it left me wishing I could be like him. But he will only know in heaven that the Lord used him in my heart!
I once became aware of a book that I was quite sure would teach me a lot. I knew it was written like 400 years ago and hard to find (back before the days of the internet). However, I did find it and purchased a copy of my own. In the introduction, the author recorded a prayer that said something like, “Lord, long after my body lies moldering in the grave, may You use this book to help others…” As I read those words, it struck me I was an answer to that prayer! And not only was I an answer, but it was 400 years later! I am quite sure that man would have never dreamed his little book would still be “instructing many” 400 years later!
Those “who are wise” will “instruct many.” There will always be a few people who can actually teach, people who can explain things so that others actually understand and “get it.” However, they will always be the few. The vast majority of believers will forever be us simple people who probably feel useless. To fight that sense of uselessness, may we take passages like this in the Bible and be encouraged to know and believe that God says we will instruct many.
“Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord,
because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain”
(I Cor. 15:58).
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