Daniel 12:4 “I Don’t Know”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴And you, Daniel, stop up the words and seal the book until [the] time of [the] end. Many will go quickly to and fro and will increase the knowledge.

It was fun to arrive at this verse. I feel I’ve read it a thousand times, yet every time I pass over it, it leaves me puzzled. What on earth does it mean? The NIV translates the first half of the verse, “But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end.” What on earth does the angel mean “close up and seal the words of the scroll?” And then he adds, “…until the time of the end.”

To you or me today, if we were given something to write, then told to close it up and seal it until the time of the end,” it would mean something like, “Get it all written, then put it in a safe deposit box and lock it up until far into the future.” It sounds like what we do with time capsules, burying them with a plan to dig it up and open it in like 100 years. Obviously, that is not what Daniel did. His writings have been disseminated around the world for nearly 2,600 years! Even Jesus had read the book and quoted it.

So what does it mean? Having studied it, I’m glad I can now say with confidence, “I don’t know.” What I have long thought as I passed over these words is that they are expressing something which Daniel would have understood, but we simply cannot. It is a cultural expression, perhaps even an idiom, one that would have made sense to Daniel, but the words are lost on us. If I told you someone just “kicked the bucket,” you would immediately know what I mean is that they passed away. Step back and ask yourself, “If I was from another time and another country far away and was trying to translate those words, would they make any sense?" We would immediately think someone really did “kick” a bucket, then we’d sit and puzzle over it, asking, “What on earth does that mean?”

I strongly suspect that is what is going on here. One author recounted that, in the ancient world, things like contracts, wills, and other important legal documents would be authorized as the different parties would apply their wax seals. Copies would be made for each party, and the original would be literally sealed up and put away. Then, if there was ever a dispute, that original could be brought out and everyone would know it was reliable, that no matter if someone had altered the wording in a copy, their mischief would be exposed.

So, Daniel might understand it was okay to make copies of his writings, but the original is something to maintain “until the time of the end,” lest devious scribes (or “scholars”) would deliberately alter it. That does sort of make sense, except that, as far as we know, there was never “an original” of any book of the Bible which was meticulously preserved. There’s nowhere in the world where you can go and actually see the manuscript written in Daniel’s own hand. As far as we know, every manuscript we have is a copy. There simply is not some dusty old monastery or something where generations of men have kept and guarded the originals.

So, whatever the angel means, it still doesn’t really make sense to me. I don’t know. I can’t say I really know what Daniel understood these words to mean, “Close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end.” Now, I want to say I like being able to confidently conclude, “I don’t know.” What I mean is, I feel good whenever I’ve finally had time to sit down and really study a passage, only to conclude, “I don’t know.” Then every time I read it again, I won’t puzzle over it. I’ll just remember, “I don’t know,” and leave it lie.

The Bible is God’s Word. It was written down by at least forty different men, over a period of at least two thousand years, in at least three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. He had every right to record some things that would have been understood by the people of that time, but lost on us. Sometimes it is best to just let it say what it says, to study it, puzzle over it, and conclude, “I don’t know.” Throughout all eternity, God will be infinite and you and I will be finite. There will always be much about Him which will be mysterious to us.

Many old writers acknowledged these very thoughts. Robert Hawker (ca. 1800) wrote, “Where the word of God is not very clear and plain, I humbly conceive, that the Lord's intuition is, in this obscurity, His people should humbly wait the explanation of prophecy, until that in the accomplishment, the thing predicted, by the event, be explained.” Another said, “One of the greatest talents in religious discovery is the finding how to hang up questions and let them hang without being at all anxious about them. What seemed perfectly insoluble will clear itself in a wondrous revelation.”

And here is a thought: “It will not hurt you, nor hurt the truth, if you should have some few questions left to be carried on with you when you go hence, for in that more luminous state, most likely they will soon be cleared, only a thousand others will be springing up even there, and you will go on dissolving still your new sets of questions, and growing mightier and more deep-seeing for eternal ages.” Even Daniel, later in this chapter will say, “I heard, but I did not understand” (v.8).

All these same thoughts pass on to the second half of the verse: “Many will go quickly to and fro and increase in knowledge.” To what is this referring? Interestingly, there are about as many interpretations as there are writers! I can say, “I don’t know,” and frankly, I think in some way or another, that’s what everyone else should admit. A few do, but not many.

What strikes me as possible is that the verse is actually prophesying the very world we live in today. In the ancient world and even up to not long ago in America, common people simply did not travel. All down through the millennia, many people could be born, live, and die and never wander more than five miles from home. If any of them could have seen us, this is exactly how they’d describe us, “going quickly to and fro.” We race around in our cars at 70 or 80 MPH. Then when that isn’t fast enough, we get on a plane and go hundreds of miles per hour! Especially young people today seemingly go on some new trip every weekend. It’s certainly true, compared to any other time in history, we “go quickly to and fro.”

Then it says, “and knowledge will increase.” Wow. Here we are living in the computer age. And now we even have AI, the “artificial intelligence.” We used to have to consult encyclopedias. Now we go click, click, click and it would seem there is nothing we can’t know.

It sure fits in a way it never has before.

But am I 100% positive that is what this was intended to mean? No. Interestingly, in Hebrew, it is “the knowledge” which will increase. Why “the” knowledge? It would seem to be referring not to knowledge in general, but to a specific knowledge, such as the understanding of prophecies (as they are fulfilled). What does it mean? I don’t know.

There I go again.

Time to move on. I have studied the verse. For now, at least, I just have to say, “I don’t know,” and leave it at that. Maybe if I live long enough, the Lord will reveal some of these things to me, but I fully expect to die with a hundred thousand questions I’m still puzzling over. It will always be true, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My thoughts above your thoughts, and My ways above your ways” (Isa. 55:9).

And I’m okay with that. Sometimes, I just don’t know.

Daniel 12:1b-3 “Living”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses: 

…and in that time your people will be delivered, the all of a one being found written in the book. ²And many from ones sleeping of ground of dust will awake, some to lives of ages and some to reproaches, to abhorrences of ages. ³And the ones being wise will shine like the shine of the expanse, and ones making righteous the many as the stars forever and ever.

As I observed in my last post, these few simple words reveal to us the engine that made Daniel who he was. The life he lived was absolutely exemplary for all of us. From the opening chapter to the end, we see a man who knew how to live his faith in the same kind of day-to-day world we all live in. However, even in these few words, we see what drove him -- “…at that time … Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” Daniel was who he was every day precisely because above it all, he saw eternity.

Somewhere along the line, it struck me that it had to have had an enormous effect on Daniel’s faith that he got to actually see eternity. As early as chapter 2, Daniel had the vision of the statue eventually obliterated by the rock “cut but not with hands.” All through his life, in one vision after another, he was allowed to see all the way into eternity. He actually spoke with angels! Once again, it makes perfect sense that he was who he was, when he literally lived in both worlds.

We could all say, if only I could see visions of heaven and actually talk to angels, I’d probably have more faith too. Yet, what did Jesus tell doubting Thomas? “Because you’ve seen, you believe. Blessed are those who haven’t seen, yet believe.” And what does the NT teach us? “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” Seeing may have been a huge aid to Daniel, but you and I have his teaching and his example to learn from and an entire completed Bible that should do both – teach us how to live day to day, and to do it with eternity always in view.

All that said, and this passage teaches us that “…those who lead many to righteousness, will shine like the stars forever and ever.” As we hover over this passage and, especially as we ponder eternity, how can any born-again believer not look around and long to see their family and friends and co-workers themselves come to faith in Jesus? I sit by my fireplace in the morning and treasure the time just sitting in God’s presence. Jesus told me almost fifty years ago, “And when you know the truth, the truth shall set you free” – and so he has done in a hundred thousand ways. Joan and I claimed in our wedding His promise, “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” I sit here and marvel how He took two very immature, very selfish young people, and wove us together into a family that is in so many ways the desires of my heart!

It is so indescribably wonderful, just simply knowing God – really truly knowing Him all day every day – in a sense living in eternity as I live here in this world. I look around and wish so much others could enjoy it too. But how do we do it? How can we “lead many to righteousness?” There is, of course, a time to actually explain to others the truth of Jesus. However, for anyone stumbling across my feeble scratchings, I would like to show you and encourage you your life is a powerful influence in the lives of others.

The Bible is all about teaching us how to live. Pause and recall, what did God say would “adorn the Gospel” (Titus 2:9-11)? How we work. Notice too what it says will actually get in its way: “Let the older women teach the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, …so that no one will malign the Word of God” (Titus 2:4,5). Even how a woman cares for her family can either adorn or malign the Gospel!

Read again the epistles of the NT. Ask yourself what do they emphasize? I believe you will see that the constant emphasis is on how we live. Speaking again specifically of our work, it says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart.” Then we read, “Husbands love your wives.” “Wives, respect your husbands.” “You fathers, bring them up.” “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth…but to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” “Make it your ambition to live a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands.” “As dearly loved children, live a life of love.” What are the two great commands? “Love God and love people.” Can we all see that the Lord places a high premium on how you and I actually live our lives? As we look around and pray for our family and friends’ salvation, please be encouraged that the simple life you live is itself a powerful influence for the Gospel!

For myself, as I’ve related before, it wasn’t until I saw a man truly living his faith (at work!), that I began to want to know “the reason why.” Thankfully our wonderful Lord after that paraded several real believers before my eyes until I finally knew I had to have whatever it was they had. To put it in old terms, a huge part of God’s plan is for your life and mine to “plow up the fallow ground” so that the seeds of the Gospel will actually take root and grow in people’s hearts.

There is, of course, a time to speak. Peter instructed us, “Be ready always to answer anyone who asks you a reason of the hope that is in you” (I Pet. 3:15). Even in that passage, notice something came before the answer – someone actually saw hope in you and me. Something – our lives – plowed the fallow ground of someone’s heart. So there was first the living, but then it did lead to us speaking.

Speaking of speaking…a complete excursion for whatever it’s worth: It is very interesting to me to note, as I have read the thoughts of many, many men, the old reformed pastors almost unanimously attributed this passage in Daniel to Christian ministers and teachers. As they read the words, “…those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever,” they felt it applied primarily to ministers.

That no doubt offends our modern evangelical senses, however, it also reflects an attitude which I fear is almost entirely lost today. In years gone by, people had great respect for their ministers. People understood that a pastor is a man actually gifted by God to do far more than you and I can accomplish. In their eyes, a pastor was a man gifted to actually connect with people’s hearts in a way far greater than you or me. I have seen that with my own eyes. I have myself spent a lot of time trying to “minister” to people and, in every case, I’m glad I did. However, sooner or later I would end up sitting beside a real pastor and watch him “connect” with people in a way that simply did not happen when I tried.

In today’s church, the pastor is nobody special. “God can use me just the same as him.” He just happens to be the one whose job it is to do the sermons, baptize people, and all of that – but no one special, really. Right? I fear that is exactly what people think. You or I may not like hearing the idea that the passage before us applies primarily to ministers, but can you see that the church today needs to re-learn a holy respect for the office of ministers? They are someone special. I think it is often the case that the people of the church go out into their world and live the Gospel, to plow up the fallow ground of people’s hearts, while their ministers may be the primary ones who can speak the Gospel and see a harvest of souls. While your words and mine may be very important, may we each cultivate in our hearts a great respect for God’s gift of a pastor-teacher and the men who bear it.

Having said all of that…back to speaking. Speaking the Gospel is very important whether we are ministers or just Christian people. Back to Peter’s admonition, we do need to be ready to give that answer, but then if you look up I Peter 3:15, notice he adds, “but do it with respect and gentleness…” There is a time for us to speak, but we can never forget that love is always our first responsibility. Love is our business as we live rubbing elbows every day with people who themselves need the Lord. That love should inform every word that comes out of our mouths, and when love sees someone ready to listen, that same love will guide what we say and how we say it.

I hope these thoughts have encouraged someone to realize that the simple “comings and goings” of your everyday life, lived in faith and love, are a powerful tool the Lord wants to use to draw those very people your heart yearns after. Something else I hope is encouraging is just knowing that your life is having a far greater influence than you may ever know this side of heaven. What do the people on the right say when Jesus commends them? “When did we see You poor and naked…?” They don’t even know the influence they had! My friends, a lost and hopeless world is watching you and me. Speak when it’s time to speak, but, my friend, live for Jesus!

Just to conclude all of this, consider a quote from S. V. Lech:

“A holy man or woman is a perpetual sermon. In example we are holding the invisible reins by which we are guiding souls to Heaven or hell. Where can we best work for the saving of souls? In the home circle. Home is the place of confidence, how glorious the reward celestial! How magnificently the stars shine over old Babylon where Daniel lived!”

 

 

Daniel 12:1b-3 “Eternity”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

…and in that time your people will be delivered, the all of a one being found written in the book. ²And many from ones sleeping of ground of dust will awake, some to lives of ages and some to reproaches, to abhorrences of ages. ³And the ones being wise will shine like the shine of the expanse, and ones making righteous the many as the stars forever and ever.

I’ve been studying these verses for some time and just trying prayerfully to let their meaning soak into my soul. The message of these few words is so deep, so profound, it feels like they barely penetrate my stony heart.  They ought to be atom bombs! I want them to be, so I keep dragging my feet and lingering over them. In a sense, I still feel they are too far away, that somehow they need to hit me harder. However, I am going to record the thoughts that do strike me. Sometimes, it’s only as I type that the Lord seems to clobber me with the truth I need most to see.

So, here goes. I want to say our Daniel has been a glowing illustration of the words from verse 3: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” I looked back and saw that I have been working my way through his book off and on for nearly ten years now. I feel it has been my great privilege to drink deeply from Daniel’s wisdom, and he has profoundly led me into levels of righteousness – spiritual growth – far beyond anything I’ve ever known. In my heart, Daniel will always “shine like the brightness of the heavens.” He has certainly been a “bright star” in my sky!

For many years now, I have owned Proverbs 13:20, “He who walks with the wise will be wise,” and I feel walking with my friend Daniel has blessed me exactly in that way. I’ll certainly never be as wise as him, but, following him around has allowed me to at least “eat the crumbs that fall from the children’s table!” I’m really going to miss him. I suppose that’s another reason I am kind of dragging my feet – I don’t want the book to end. I still feel I have so much to learn from him. I want to worship God like he did. I want to be brave like he was. I want to love people the way he did. The good news is that all of that is wrapped up in Jesus Himself, so to know Jesus better and learn from Him is to learn what made Daniel who he was. Still, Daniel himself has become a wonderful friend and I’ll always wish I could learn more from him. Maybe he’ll be one of my teachers in heaven. Wouldn’t that be awesome – to be able to learn from him forever!

This isn’t the first reference to “them that are wise.” In 11:33-35, the angel said, “Those who are wise will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered. When they fall, they will receive a little help, and many who are not sincere will join them. Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.” Later in 12:9,10 he says, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.”

Isn’t it encouraging to know that, here in Daniel’s book, the Lord only sees two kinds of people in the world – the “wise” and the “wicked.” Simply to be a believer is to be counted in God’s eyes as being among the “wise!” In spite of all our (many) short-comings, to have bowed our knees to Jesus and to have embraced His blood-bought redemption makes us “wise” in comparison to the rest of this world – compared to those who blunder on and one day rise to “everlasting shame and contempt,” to spend eternity in a devil’s hell!

It's hard to believe I’ll shine at all. Maybe sort of lightly twinkle once every thousand years or so? However, our wonderful Savior ensures that we will all nevertheless “shine like the heavens.” He is so kind. He began a good work and He will continue it. 

As many have noted, chapter 12 is definitely an epilogue of sorts to this angel’s message which Daniel recorded as chapters 10-12. However, I think it also a fitting epilogue to the whole book. What do I mean? This is one of the places where my mind jumbles, but I’ll try to work it out. First of all, as I have tried to emphasize all these years, this is not just a book about prophecy. Daniel has not just taught me about the future. He’s taught me how to live today. This is a book about a believer working at his job and simply living his life. Daniel himself shows us again and again how to live our day-to-day lives in a very, very dark world.

I have learned so much from him about simply living as a believer. The fact is, we all live in a very, very dark world. I have said for years, if us believers don’t live our faith at our jobs, where will we live it? We spend at the absolute most maybe six or eight hours a week at church. We spend forty, fifty, maybe even sixty hours a week at our jobs. At those jobs is where we rub elbows all those hours with the very people who desperately need to see Jesus. As has been said, you and I may be the only Jesus many, many people will ever know.

Daniel’s everyday life, from a fifteen or twenty year old youth to an at least eighty-some year old man, is a model of what even a New Testament believer ought to be. Consider this passage – from that New Testament: Titus 2:9,10: “Teach workers to be subject to their bosses in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” “…so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” The old KJV translated it, “…that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.”

Our work lives can (should) actually adorn the Gospel! I sit here as a believer today because of a man who came to work and lived Jesus right in front of my eyes. He never said a word. He just lived Jesus. He adorned the Gospel. He made it attractive to me. I suppose it’s no surprise that here in the latter years of my life, I was also greatly blessed by another man who lived his faith at work – Daniel.

That is all so important. It grieves me to the depths of my heart that the modern American church teaches almost nothing about truly living. My pastor now does occasionally connect his teaching with people’s jobs, however, I can count on one hand that number of times I’ve heard that from any pulpit in some forty-five years. That said, I move on to the second thing I want to observe why I myself see this chapter 12 as an epilogue to Daniel’s book.

These three simple verses reveal to us the engine that made Daniel what he was. Consider again, “…at that time … Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” Like Daniel, we believers live (or should) with one eye on this world and the other on eternity. As important as this world is, what truly makes it important is eternity.

Why should we strive to live and work in a way that “adorns the doctrine of God our Savior in all things”? Because – read those three verses again – this world is but a passing vapor. We and every single person around us will live forever. Rather, I should probably say, some of us will live forever, others will die forever. Forever. Paul draws the two together in that familiar verse, “And whatever you do, do it with all your heart, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col. 3:23,24).

We live today because of tomorrow. That, in itself, is to be wise, yes? Eternity is what makes life in this world matter. If we are all just a bunch of overgrown amoebas spinning around in a world that exists only by chance, then what is the point of anything? Paul said it two thousand years ago – then we might as well “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” You could be Mother Theresa or Adolf Hitler. What difference does it make – if we live and die and that’s it? However, a wise person would stop and consider: No, I know in my heart that somehow I will live forever. Then the next question is where and why? And how did I get here to begin with? And who’s running this show anyway?

Daniel’s book has answered all of those questions, along with showing us how to live in this world as one of those people who will thereafter live forever.  As he has said over and over, “the Most High rules in the nations of men.” All of this  and, in a sense, his entire book gets wrapped up in these few simple words: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”

As Daniel has taught us, who we are and how we live in this world is very important, but here we see clearly that the engine which should drive us is that very wise realization that we all live for eternity.