Daniel 12:13 “Rest”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³And you go to the end and you will rest and you will stand to your lot to the end of the days. 

And so, here we are. Daniel 12:13, the last verse of this wonderful book, the Lord’s last recorded words to our friend Daniel. I have been trying to simply ruminate on these words, to let them sink deeply into my soul. That is in part because I am so loathe to end my study of this book. I’m loathe to end these frequent visits with this man who has taught me so much and who I have come to admire deeply. If I seem to babble on, it might be because I simply don’t want this all to end. 

It’s interesting to me to note that the Lord used this very man Daniel the first time He ever “touched” me. I know I’ve related this before, but, since I’m deliberately procrastinating my conclusion, I’ll relate it again. The very first time I remember the Lord’s “touch,” I couldn’t have been more than 4 years old. My brothers and I were attending a Vacation Bible School in our little bitty town.

I clearly remember a lady had out her flannel graph and was telling us the story of “Daniel in the Lions’ Den.” All I remember is that I liked the little cut-out picture of Daniel and just being told the story. But, what struck me most was the lady herself. There was a kindness and gentleness and love about her that just seemed to glow in my little heart. I know now what it was. It was Jesus. She was a real born-again woman who sincerely loved us, who loved me, and that day, Jesus reached out through her, and through this Daniel, and touched my heart.

As I sit here today, Jesus is that exact same glow in my heart. I like Him. He makes my heart happy. I want to know Him, for Him and this same gentle kindness to be a part of my life. Even as I think of our Daniel, he still lights that same glow, that exact same happy feeling in my heart. I like him. I want to be like him—just like that lady.

Little could I have ever imagined that, near the end of my life, I would spend some ten years studying Daniel’s book, very slowly enjoying every verse, every word, sometimes even every letter! At this point, there is no doubt in my mind that he has been the single greatest influence in my life -- on who I am, on the kind of believer I am, on how I see God Himself -- than any other single person (besides my parents, of course).

Looking at this final verse, it strikes me that (as usual) it is packed with meaning. First, it starts with the Hebrew word “you” – second person singular pronoun. As I have pointed out before, in Hebrew they seldom ever speak pronouns like this. The pronouns get absorbed into their verbs. When they are expressed, it is for emphasis. So when the Lord says to him, “You…,” He is clearly and deliberately speaking to Daniel himself,

This reminds us all that a relationship with God is personal. He is not the Deist’s god who lives out there somewhere and is just sort of everyone’s god in general. No. He is your God. He is my God. He is, at the exact same time, the God who knows and cares for every single living thing in this world. “The Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His works. He opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing.”

As this elderly Daniel stands here beside the river, his God is the God who has known him his whole life, who has walked beside him, helped him, taught him, used him in ministry to others. The two of them know each other well. Daniel is a man whose own eyes have seen angels, talked to them, heard and seen for himself incredible visions of human history right down to the end. He’s been a man who has spent his entire adult life faithfully meeting the Lord in prayer and studying diligently in the Word. He’s asked many questions, right down to verse 8 just above us: “I heard but I did not understand, so I asked, ‘My Lord, what will the outcome of all this be?’”

And what are these final words to this Daniel? “As for you, go [your way] until the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to [receive] your allotted inheritance.” In Hebrew He says simply to Daniel, “Go.” From verse 9 to 13, the Lord does not answer his question, rather just throws in more mysterious prophecies, then tells him, “Go.” If you and I would pause to ponder that single word, we’ll realize this is simply a part of knowing God. Deut. 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this Law.” The plain simple fact is that His thoughts are not our thoughts. “As the heavens are high above the earth, so are His thoughts above our thoughts.”

To know God is to know much. Jesus promised us, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” As I’ve studied the book of Daniel and all his prophecies, it has amazed me what a blessing it is for us believers – to actually know the flow of human history right down to the end of this world we live in. From the Bible, we know much about even our own personal lives, what is right, what is wrong, what we should do and what we shouldn’t. However, there is always much we don’t know!

Part of walking with God for a lifetime is to accept that simple little truth, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” I can pray and study and ask and ask and ask, but there will always be things I just don’t understand. As I face those things, what does the Lord tell me? “Go.” I have to give up and just do what I do know.

It was massively helpful to me when I learned that Jesus really did mean it when He said the two Great Commands are to love God and love people, that all of the law and prophets comes down to those simple commands. Paul had learned that and told the Galatians, “All that matters is faith expressing itself through love” (5:6). Where that is massively liberating to me is precisely when I’m confused, when I feel like I really don’t know “what’s up.” I can always come back to reminding myself, no matter how much I don’t know, if I make it my goal, to the best of my ability, today to simply love God and others, then when I lay my head down at night, I can know I succeeded.

Sometimes I feel so confused, I almost don’t know what to do. The Lord says, “Go.” I’m personally stuck right now in this awful murky world, hanging between my entire life of full-time work and this strange, scary, uncertain world called retirement. Part of me so wishes I could just give it all up and stay home. However, work is really all I’ve ever known. I love my job. I love the people I work with. It seems like to me that my engineering is the main place the Lord has used me all down through the years. How can I give that up? What am I giving it up to? I want Him to use me. I want to do all the good I can for other people for as long as I remain here on earth. If I do retire, where am I going?

All those questions frankly terrify me right now. I feel horridly confused and uncertain what to do. So what am I to do today? “Go.” “Love God, love others.” “Whatever you do, wherever you are, whoever you’re with, just make it your goal to love God and others.” I have to believe, as I do that, somehow He will make it all clear. I just don’t get to know “it all” ahead of time. I simply have to “Go.” That is what Daniel was told and that is what the Lord tells you and me. Daniel didn’t get all his questions answered and neither will you and I. That is simply part of serving and knowing this mysterious, infinite God we call Jesus! And note again, Daniel is an old man. He’s been walking with God for something on the order of 90 years! And what does he still have to accept as his answer from the Lord? “Go.”

Note again, though, the Lord’s kindness. For this very elderly man, what else does the Lord tell him? “…You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to [receive] your allotted inheritance.” “You will rest.” You see we are still listening to a very personal relationship. The Lord tells him, “You will rest.” Daniel has heard the Lord’s plans for the human race far into the future. But what about him? The Lord tells him, “You will rest.” He is going to die. The older we get, the more inviting that thought becomes, however, for each of us, it isn’t just “You will die.” The Lord says, “You will rest.”

What an incredible kindness! As it says in Job 18:14, for the human race, death is “the king of terrors.” Hebrews 2:15 describes humans as “those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” As I pause and ponder on the Lord’s words, “You will rest,” I’m struck by the thought that I take this for granted. After some fifty years knowing the Lord, I have come to take it for granted that I don’t fear death! I’ve got to live my entire adult life seeing my own death as actually something good. It isn’t “death;” it’s rest.

Interesting. Rest. Yes, that is exactly what my heart sees. Life is hard. It is very hard. Yet, as a believer, from the very bottom of my soul, I see death as simply a transfer – a transfer from this world of constant stress and worries and frankly unbearable workloads, into a world of perfect beauty and all things good. Of course that’s what I see. That’s what the Bible teaches us. Our souls hang on those words, “They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…” (Rev. 21:3,4).

In fact, I feel exactly what Paul describes in Phil. 1:22-24, “Yet what shall I choose? I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” In our minds, like Paul, the only thing “bad” about death is the people we leave behind. I love being a husband and a father and a grandfather. I love all the people I work with. I live to do them all good. Yet death takes all of that from me.

As I sit here typing, if the Lord were to suddenly appear and say, “Okay, Don, you’re done here. Time to come home,” that would be a glorious relief. Yet, my first thought would be, “But, but, but…what about Joan? She needs me. What about my kids and grandkids? I really don’t want them to have to sit through a funeral! What about all my family and friends who might not know the Lord? I was hoping maybe somehow, someway, Jesus could use this confused, bungling idiot to touch them.” Huh. It seems I’m also “torn between the two!”

Just so it’s said, the one thing I’m sure we all still “fear” about death is the pain. We’d all like to just die quietly in our sleep and slip away to meet the Lord, but we’re also aware we could die of cancer or get creamed by a semi. For that, we just have to trust the Lord. He said, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps. 116:15). Who knows? Maybe believers don’t feel pain when they die. Wouldn’t surprise me—even if we’re creamed by a semi!

All of that aside, yes, I take it for granted that I actually see death as “rest.” Where do I get that from? The Bible. Just like Daniel, what the Lord calls me to is not “death,” but rather rest. What an incredible kindness! In my heart of hearts, I need to not take that for granted. It’s just one more thing I can thank our wonderful Lord for. I’m so glad my friend Daniel got to go to his rest. He suffered so much. His whole life he suffered, torn from his family and forced to serve as “head of the warlocks” under the wicked kings of Babylon and Persia! His faithfulness through all of that inspires me. Yet, I’m glad it ended for him and he got to go to his rest.

One last thing to note is the Lord promising Daniel, “…and then at the end of the days you will rise to [receive] your allotted inheritance.” Remember Daniel was a Jew. It was enormously important to them that they had an inheritance in the Promised Land. As a boy, Daniel would have just assumed he was going to marry one of those cute Jewish girls, have a family, and live out their lives on their “allotted inheritance” there in Israel. Yet at probably about 15, he was ripped away from it all and forced to live out his earthly life in the epicenter of evil – Babylon.

We probably utterly fail to realize how painful that was for our Daniel. Yet, what are the Lord’s last recorded words to him? “…and then at the end of the days you will rise to [receive] your allotted inheritance.”

“No, Daniel. You’ve not lost everything. In fact, the very things you wanted most are at this very moment awaiting you in glory!”

So what are we to do? “Go.” Live our lives. Take care of our people. Pray. Do all the good we can for all the people we can for as long as we can. And then what? “You will rest, and you will rise to live out all your wildest dreams…forever.”

Daniel’s life (and death) are recorded for us “upon whom the end of the ages has come” that we might be encouraged to love and worship and serve the same wonderful God, and do it all in the comfort of knowing, no matter what, there is a wonderful future in store for each of us!