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 beautiful future in store for each of us!

Daniel 12:12 “Waiting”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹²Blessed [is] the one waiting and he will arrive at days of one thousand three hundred thirty and five.” 

The NIV translates this “Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.” What a delicious little cordial is this verse! It’s one to pop in your mouth and just let it swirl around while it slowly releases its delectable sweetness!

“Blessed is the one…” Perhaps we read those words so often in the Bible, we lose sight of their enormity? They are recorded again and again from cover to cover and, remember, perhaps the most famous sermon of all, the “Sermon on the Mount,” begins with Jesus telling us over and over, “Blessed are the…”

Our God is a God of blessing! Our faith is not about slavish rituals, worshiping a far-away god you’re not sure you can trust. It’s about blessing. It’s no mistake, one of the most basic songs of the Christian faith is “Jesus loves me; this I know…” Jesus loves me. And what’s another one? How about, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one…”

Blessing. Our God is about blessing. Even as I sit here typing, these thoughts just swirl in my head and I find I don’t want to leave them! I’m hearing Steven Tyler singing, “I just wanna hold you close, feel your heart so close to mine; And just stay here in this moment, For all the rest of time…!” Where are the words? How can I say what it means to literally swim in this love-life we call “knowing God?” Sitting here in this glow, enjoying this inexpressible sweetness, nothing else really matters.

David exclaimed, “Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee!” “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”

Blessing. And then…in what do we find all this blessing? “Blessed is the one who waits…” Waits. Waiting. As I’ve been pondering on this little verse, I’ve been thinking a lot about this “waiting” business. “Blessed is the one who waits…” If we back up a second, I think we’d all have to admit, we don’t like waiting. Maybe that is primarily an American problem? We always want everything right now. We pray, “Lord, give me patience,” then add, “And I want it NOW!”

However, with the Lord, as is so often the case, we find ourselves waiting. Someone once said, “Whatever the Lord does, He seems to do it slowly.” There in the Garden, He told Adam and Eve He would send “the seed of the woman” to “crush the head of the serpent.” If the two of them were anything like us, they probably thought their firstborn son would be that Messiah to save their now broken world. Little could they have imagined that some 6,000 years later, we would still be praying, “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!” We’re still waiting!

How many times have we each prayed urgently for things, only to find ourselves having to remember Jesus told us, “Men ought always to pray, and not give up!” Probably like anyone else readying these words, I have prayers I’ve been praying for 40 years and still waiting for God’s answer. It’s wonderful when we pray for things and see the Lord answer almost immediately. He does do that…just not usually.

But notice – the blessing is in the waiting. “Blessed is the one who waits…” I even like the fact that, in Hebrew, “the one who waits” is an articular Qal participle. You could translate it “the waiting one.” I need to ask myself, am I a “waiting one?” As the Lord watches me and listens to my prayers, does He see a “waiting one,” or does He see an impatient, discontent man who, in truth, will not be happy until he gets what he wants?

Even concerning things I see as urgent, can I simply content myself to express those matters to God, then wait for Him to answer – as the song says, “In His time”? What this verse in Daniel would teach us is that the real blessing is not always having our prayers answered, but rather in the waiting for it! Daniel has been teaching us throughout His book that “the Most High rules in the nations of men.” Even as I sit here typing, it is making perfect sense. If, as we’re waiting, we’re also trusting (and learning to trust), we are in reality finding one of the greatest blessings of all – just to be confident in God and leave it all in His infinitely wise and loving hands. We’re learning to be still.

All of these thoughts even flow right into the rest of the verse. In this specific case, what are we “waiting” for? To reach the end of the “1,335 days.” What on earth is that? We don’t know. So, not only are we waiting for something from the Lord…we don’t even know what we’re waiting for! Now that’s TRUST. And what does that trust mean for us? Back to the start of the verse – blessing. It is the blessing of that wonderful, quiet, joyful confidence that our Father has it all under control. We can just sit in His big, loving lap and watch our world go by. The faith of a child.

Blessing in waiting. Daniel learned it, then wrote it down in hopes you and I might learn it too! God give us hearts to hear.

Daniel 12:11,12 “When They Happen…”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹And from the time the regular [sacrifice] is caused to be taken away and [the] abomination of desolating [is] given, [there will be] one thousand two hundred and ninety days. ¹²Blessed [is] the one waiting and he will arrive at days of one thousand three hundred thirty and five.” 

As I approach the end of this wonderful book, my mind is swirling with thoughts I’d like to record. I’m not sure even where to begin – so I think I’ll just do that -- begin.

Cryptic. One of the things which has deeply impressed me from this study through Daniel is how much of Bible prophecy is exactly that: cryptic. Notice above in my “fairly literal” translation, all of the places where I’ve included the [-----] words. Those are places where there simply are no Hebrew words to translate. I’m “adding” those words, attempting to render the sentences at least somewhat intelligible.

Sometimes that is simply Hebrew. It honestly is about like Chinese to our American minds. I’ve said before, to me, Hebrew is like a short-hand language where you “had to be there.” To us, it takes a LOT of “reading between the lines.” It is a picture language which just doesn’t say enough to satisfy our technically precise American English brains.

So that presents a very real problem when we resolve to totally understand prophecies and turn them into our rigid systems and timelines. The very language itself is one of our biggest obstacles. Then there are so many passages like the one before us. Several times we’ve run into the timeline of 3½ years or 42 months or 1,260 days. Now, all of a sudden, we’re told something about 1,290 days and then another reference to 1,335 days. For what?

We’re not told. All we know is that the Lord promises a blessing on those who “wait for and reach” the end of those 1,335 days. We’re not told. Let me say it one more time: We’re not told. I’m belaboring this particular point because, for the last 2,600 years since Daniel, theologians and “scholars” have been proffering their opinions what these “days” are about. If you read what they say, after a while it is almost laughable. Time itself has rendered most of those opinions laughable.

If those “scholars” had simply (humbly) offered their opinions and ideas what it was about, we could easily dismiss what they wrote. The problem is, so many of them wrote (and still do) with an iron-clad certainty. If we read our “scholars” of today, their “iron-clad” assertions often sound quite reasonable and believable. What I believe the Lord has taught me is to try to keep a measure of humility in my own prophetical opinions.

My heart has been deeply blessed to study Daniel’s prophecies and then especially to see how it all plays into the book of Revelation. The two books really are Daniel Volumes I & II! I feel far more aware of the Lord’s plans for the ages. If anything, I’m even more convinced our traditional “Pre-Trib/Pre-Mill” understanding is correct. However, I’m now far more keenly aware how wrong we might be. Once again, our commitment needs to be to those prophetic Scriptures themselves, not to our “neat and tidy” little system with it’s timelines and interpretations.

Daniel 12:11,12 are case in point. We can be absolutely confident of a blessing on those who “wait for and reach” the end of the 1,335 days.” Even in Hebrew, that is very clear. What exactly will happen in those days, the truth is we simply don’t know. We’re not told. Just so it’s said, I like the interpretations of men like Roy Beacham and John Whitcomb. They suggest that, after Jesus returns, ending the Great Tribulation, the world will be such a mess, it will take time to clean it up and get things organized for the Millennial Kingdom and Jesus’ 1,000 year reign. The “1,290” will be some sort of significant 30 days, then the “1,335” will add an additional 45.

Makes perfect sense to me. Seems very reasonable. My “system” says I think they’re right. However, the humility that I hope Daniel has taught me would remind me to hold those opinions and my “system” with open hands. It will all play out exactly the way the Lord intends, not necessarily the way I think. As Jesus said, “I’ve told you these things beforehand, so that, when they happen, then you’ll believe, then you’ll know…”

I’m intrigued by the Lord’s promised blessing on those who “wait,” but I think I’ll turn off my spinning head for this morning and take up those thoughts in another post.

 

Daniel 12:10 “Tares and Wheat”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁰Many purifying themselves and they will make themselves white and they will be refined by fire and wicked ones will cause to be evil and all of [the] wicked ones will not understand/be discerning, and the ones being wise will understand/be discerning.”

This verse is very similar to what the angel had said earlier in 11:35, “Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white until the time of the end…” As usual, if we stop and really think about this verse, there is much to observe and to learn.

First, I want to acknowledge that the Hebrew in this verse is a bit obscure to me. The verbal voices (active, passive, or reflexive?), to me, are difficult to translate. Also, it can be unclear whether to take some of those verbals as transitives or intransitives. I gave it my best shot in my “fairly literal” translation above, but I wouldn’t “go to the mat” over any of it. It is reported that, late in his life, Mark Twain was observed reading the Bible. Someone asked him, “Doesn’t it bother you all the things you don’t understand?” He replied, “It’s not the things I don’t understand that bother me; it’s the things that are all too clear!”

As a believer, of course none of it “bothers me,” but it’s very, very often true we (like Mr. Twain) have to keep our focus on “the things that are all too clear!” What is “all too clear” is that “in this world, you shall have tribulation…” Regardless of how we translate the intended verbal voices, the bottom-line is that this world will never be a picnic for us believers, and we can only expect that problem to get worse as we approach “the end.”

What has particularly struck me, however, from this verse is the final words, “…but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.” Those thoughts are strikingly similar to Rev. 22:11, “Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.” As Jesus taught us, in this world, there will always be tares among the wheat.

In a society where the Bible has strong influence, sometimes it is hard to tell the tares from the wheat. That is how it was in America and perhaps is still – to some extent. I work in an office of about fifty people and marvel every day how nice they all are. Some I know are believers, but most I wouldn’t even want to guess whether they are or not. They are all so pleasant, it would be hard to count them among “the wicked” – among “the tares.”

Both Daniel and the Apostle John end their prophetic lives telling us, “The wicked will be wicked and the righteous will be righteous.” I think one thing we can learn from them is to expect that the difference will get more and more pronounced. As we approach the end, it will get clearer and clearer who are the righteous and who are the wicked. We’ll see less and less of those “nice” people who simply may or may not actually be believers.

I believe I’ve definitely seen this across my lifetime which has spanned the last half of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st. Especially in the last 25 years and even most dramatically in the last 10, I would definitely say it’s more and more true “the wicked are wicked and the righteous are righteous.” I personally have little affection for either political party, but at least in appearances, the Democrat party has come to seemingly represent every possible form of shameless evil, while the Republicans seem to stand for the Bible, morality, law and order, and the traditional values this country was built on.

(Notice my words “seemingly.” Politicians are what I call “professional liars.” They are people who have mastered the art of telling people what they want to hear, then actually doing whatever garners to themselves the most money and power. So, again, if my assessment bothers you, please remember I said I have no affection for either party).

Political parties aside, it would seem that, more and more, evil is evil, and good is good. The distinction is growing ever sharper. If I’m correct in understanding Daniel and John, that should not surprise us. Paul warned us in II Tim. 3:1, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days,” then goes on to describe a world of evil looking too much like our today.

I think we would all agree it bothers us deeply to see evil so prevalent and even threatening in our America. However, that forces us to acknowledge what Jesus taught: The tares and the wheat will grow together until the end. I really, really don’t like it. I don’t like to even see the faces of those who, to me, deserve the name “wicked.” I wish we could see (and pray for) revival in America so pervasive it would seem the wicked could “disappear!”

However, Daniel, John, and Jesus Himself taught us not to expect it. It is strangely comforting to me to genuinely embrace this truth. I’ve known it for years, but I don’t think I have ever truly embraced it. In a sense, my soul has known it, yet resisted actually accepting it. I’ve been subtly fighting it in my heart. I feel it helps me to just accept it, to see it is exactly what the Lord long ago told us to expect – there are the wicked and there are the righteous and the distinction between them will only grow clearer as we head toward the end. The tares and the wheat will grow together.

For me, I think that spurs two thoughts. One is that it just makes me want to pray harder especially for my family and friends. The other is that it scares me to think what we might have to go through. The drive to pray is, of course, a great thing. As far as the fear, I just have to remind myself again what Daniel’s three friends taught me: The wicked can’t even burn me in a raging furnace unless the Lord allows it. As we learn from the Psalms, “A good man has no fear of bad news…he’s confident in the Lord.”

Tares and wheat.

Daniel 12:8-9 “Balancing Act”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁸And I heard and I did not understand and I said, “My Master, what [will be] the end of these [things]? ⁹And He said to me, “Go, Daniel, because stopped up and sealed [are] the words until time of end.”

I want to pause and think more about v.9. The NIV translates it, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.” This isn’t the first time he’s heard these words. Back in 8:26, Gabriel told him, “The vision…that has been given to you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.” Then in 12:4, the angel speaking to him by the Tigris had told him, “But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end…”

Interestingly, in Rev. 22:10, the angel tells the Apostle John, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near.” I observed earlier that these words about “closing up” and “sealing” the prophecies seem a bit enigmatic to our modern American ears. If we said that, we’d mean something like, put them all together in a file and lock it away and hide it somewhere. Yet, obviously, that isn’t what Daniel did with them. Here we are actually studying them! There they are lying there in our open Bibles. That doesn’t seem very “closed up and sealed” to us.

As I suggested then, I think the words are some kind of ancient idiom that is simply lost on us. It’s like when we say someone “kicked the bucket,” and mean they died, or if we tell someone to “stop and smell the roses.” We mean simply they need to slow down. Just imagine what it would be like for someone two-thousand years from now trying to translate our words. They would scratch their heads and wonder why on earth anyone would “kick” a bucket, or what on earth do roses have to do with anything? Those are some of our many idioms and ancient peoples had theirs. God spoke to people in words they understood at the time and, every once in a while, it’s us who are scratching our heads and asking, “What in the world…?”

So, the words don’t really make sense, but we get the idea. The prophecies given to Daniel contained truths that we simply can’t fully understand, and no one will until “the time of the end.” Then John is told not to “close them up and seal them” precisely because “the time is near.”

My heart tells me we should stop and consider these words, even if, at first pass, they’re a bit strange in our ears – and especially when Daniel was told one thing and John the complete opposite. As we’ve noted before, one thing these words teach us is we need to accept that there are aspects of prophecy we will only understand when they’re fulfilled. As Jesus told His disciples, “I’ve told you these things, so that, when they are fulfilled, you will believe…”

When I read what “scholars” write about prophecies, it seems to me there tend to be two camps. Reformed theologians tend to just throw up their hands and give the impression there’s really very little we understand. On the other hand, the Dispensationalists tend to want to assign precise meanings to every word and phrase, as if they can confidently piece together everything into absolutely confident interpretations, timelines, and so forth.

As usual, I think they’re both in the ditch – just on opposite sides of the road, lobbing their grenades at each other. The truth lies somewhere in between. The few of us who try to stay in the center of that road end up getting caught in the crossfire from both. That said, I’m guaranteed, no matter what I say, I’ll be accused by one side or the other (or both) of some sort of prophetical heresy.

What is my point? Obviously, if the Lord gave prophecies to His servants and told them to write them down, and if those prophecies are in our Bibles, then we should study them and do our best to understand what is all too clear. That is precisely what Daniel did. He studied Jeremiah’s writings and when it said the Babylonian Captivity would last seventy years, Daniel immediately understood that seventy years equals seventy years, did the math, and realized it was about to be fulfilled.

On the other hand, even when our favorite Bible student Daniel asked “What does this mean?” he was told, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.” So, what do we learn? Like Daniel, we should study prophecies. We should not throw up our hands and call it all hopelessly mysterious. But, as we study, we should happily accept that there may be much we do not and cannot understand. Our challenge then is simply to be honest. Some things are very clear. Others are not.

The Reformed guys have their very generalized sort of interpretation of prophecy, while the Dispensationalists act like every word is crystal clear and draw up elaborate timelines. The Reformed guys gather up all the prophecies of the Bible, dismiss them all as mysterious, and leave us with just one Second Coming of Christ and one general resurrection at the end of time. They mock at the Dispensationalists and their detailed timelines. On the other hand, the Dispensationalists clutch on to their particular timelines and call anyone a heretic if theirs is any different.

I once attended an ordination council where the young man confessed he’d come to believe in a “Mid-Trib” Rapture. The group almost didn’t ordain him over such a heresy! I personally am convinced from my studies that the Church will be (and must be) raptured out before the Jewish timeline resumes and Seventieth Week of Daniel occurs – the “Pre-Trib" position; however, that is exactly the point of what I think we learn from Daniel, John, and even Jesus Himself – that we should study prophecy, draw our conclusions, but then hold them with “open hands.” When someone differs from us, our attitude ought to be, “Oh, really? Why do you think that?” Maybe we could learn from them.

Prophecies are not necessarily a hill “to die on.” Salvation by faith alone, the Inspiration of Scripture, the Deity of Christ – all are doctrines or “hills” we should be determined to die on, but I would suggest we all need to trim our sails a bit when it comes to prophecies. Our commitment should be to the prophecies themselves, not necessarily to whatever sort of timelines we’ve constructed or read about in someone else’s book.

That is a balancing act and perhaps a precarious one at that, but I think Daniel would teach us that is exactly what we should expect. If we stay out of the ditches and keep to the King’s Highway, we’ll catch grenades from those on the extremes, but, hopefully, as those prophecies are being fulfilled before our very eyes, we’ll be like the men of Issachar in I Chron. 12:32, who “understood the times, and knew what Israel should do.”

Daniel 12:8-9 “Holy Curiosity”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁸And I heard and I did not understand and I said, “My Master, what [will be] the end of these [things]? ⁹And He said to me, “Go, Daniel, because stopped up and sealed [are] the words until time of end.”

These two little verses are so rich with practical instruction! We need only slow down and I feel I could write for hours! It seems forever true, if you would catch up with God, you must first slow down. “Be still,” He says, “and know that I am God.” I promise not to write on for hours, but there are a number of observations I want to record. That helps me not to forget them.

Daniel says, “I heard.” Oh, blessed engagement. Jesus said, “And when you know the truth, the truth shall set you free.” If you and I would be truly free, we must know the truth – but in order to know, we must first hear. And what is it we need most desperately to hear? The words of God.

Our Daniel has modeled “hearing” for us. That quality in him has so encouraged me as I’ve followed him along through this book. Back in 9:2 we found him saying, “I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the Word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.” Daniel had from somewhere acquired a copy of the book of Jeremiah and he had been studying it!

He had been reading it closely and pondering over the verses. He was hearing. And when he came to 25:11, he found that the Babylonian Captivity was only to last seventy years. Verse 1 of Daniel’s chapter 9 had just informed us it was “the first year of Darius.” Daniel was likely in his eighties by then. If he had been carried to Babylon at the age of 15, as he stopped and did the math in his head, he would go, “Oh, my! It’s time for this to end!”

What had happened? He had heard. The words of God didn’t just bounce off Daniel’s ears. They went to his heart. And they could go to his heart precisely because he took the time (slowed down) to hear. If you and I would be like Daniel, we too must start at this same place. We must slow down. We must take the time to hear God’s Word – to actually hear. Ezra was like Daniel. It says of him in Ezra 7:10, “Now Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it…”

Sincere, deliberate “hearing” – that may mean different things to each of us. We are all wired differently. The question is not how we do it, but rather do we do it? Ask yourself, “Do I carve out time in my life to very deliberately hear God’s Word? Are there times when I set aside all the other demands and cares of this life to ponder over my Bible – to perhaps come again and again to places where we say, “‘I heard, but I did not understand,’ and so I prayed and scratched, asked questions, maybe looked up other verses, and actually tried to understand?” Daniel did. If you and I would be brave like him, faithful like him, then we too must start at this same point – we need to hear.

Daniel says, “I heard, but I did not understand.” A huge part of Bible study is finding things we don’t understand. When Daniel came to that point, what did he do? He says, “So I asked, ‘My Lord, what will the outcome of all this be?’” He says, “So I asked…”  Not understanding didn’t frustrate Daniel. It didn’t make him throw up his hands and walk away. It made him curious. Curiosity may have “killed the cat,” but it is a good thing for you and me, especially when it comes to the things of the Lord.

As we’ve noted before, even angels are curious. Just back in v.6, one of the angels near Daniel had asked, “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?” Some people suggest the angel is just asking for Daniel’s benefit, but I think it far more consistent with other Scripture to believe he himself is curious, just like Daniel. We’ve noted before I Peter 1:12, “Even angels long to look into these things.” Concerning these end-time prophecies, Jesus told us, “No one knows the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven…” (Matt. 24:36).

Once again, it’s totally okay to not understand. We’re dealing with God after all. His thoughts are not our thoughts and, even in heaven, us finite creatures will spend all eternity, like the angels, curious and learning of the infinite God. Lord, give us all a holy curiosity, especially when we are studying Your Word. May we never stop hearing, never stop asking, and never stop learning!

Now pause and consider the Lord’s answer. He says to Daniel, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.” Notice, He didn’t answer Daniel’s question! Part of sincere Bible study inevitably includes things we still don’t understand. Although we pray over it, study it, read what others say about it, ask our pastor, and do all we can think of – we may, in the end, walk away saying, “I still don’t understand.”

There may be some things we simply will never understand in this life. In fact, I can guarantee us all that though we try to study diligently, we will die with unanswered questions, with things in the Bible we just don’t understand. On the other hand, if we keep asking, keep “hearing,” we will find answers to many things we don’t at first understand. Sometimes the Lord may be doing us good through the seeking itself. Other times, perhaps we aren’t ready to understand yet.

I remember the first time I ever read through the Bible and realized I didn’t understand much of what I was reading. I was then amazed the second time, how much more I did understand. Now later in life, I go back and look again at passages I studied years ago. I look at what I learned at that time and I’m amazed how shallow I was! I now see it is all so much deeper than I recognized then. It is crazy now to think, if I lived long enough to study it again some day, what I see as deep now will be shallow then! The Lord said, “He who began a good work in you will continue it.”

There is always more to understand, but, to some extent, you and I can only understand so much. We need to grow, to mature, perhaps in many other ways, before we’re even capable of understanding some of the things of the Lord.

So then, let us all be like Daniel. Let’s spend our lives hearing and seeking to understand and happily accepting whatever light the Lord chooses to give us. And when we’ve done it, let’s keep doing it. Lord, give us holy curiosity!

 

Daniel 12:5-7 “Wow”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses: 

⁵And I, Daniel, looked and Behold! – two others standing, one this to the bank of the river and one that to the bank of the river. ⁶And one said to the man clothed [in] linens who [was] from above to the waters of the river, “Until when the end of the wonders?” ⁷And I heard the man clothed [in] the linens, who was from above the waters of the river, and He lifted His right [hand] and His left toward the heavens and He swore by [the] One living [to] the ages that [it will be] to a time, times, and a half, and when it is completed [and the] hand of [the] people of holiness [is] broken up, the all of these [things] will be completed.

As I said in the last blog, this is a crazy passage to study. As I’ve slowed down and really sought to understand it, it is like a bomb going off in my hands. The challenge now has been to try to gather up my frazzled brain and record what I believe the Lord has shown me. In the last blog, I tried to record a number of observations I want to remember. Now, this time, I will attempt to record what to me is the biggest bombshell in my head.

As I sit here typing, I’m afraid it’s too big to even communicate. It is a sweep of the entire Bible, earth history, and God’s great Plan of Redemption. It will be the Lord’s doing if I succeed in writing anything down that is understandable or helpful to anyone else. I will try. No one has to agree with me. I’m just recording what I think I see. If you feel you don’t agree, then you yourself must “search the Scriptures” and “see if these things be so” (Acts 17:11).

Ok. Here’s the deal. God’s great Plan of Redemption is all about Jewish history. It is all about Abraham and his descendants. The Church (us) is only a giant parenthesis in that great Plan. We like to think we’re all very important, that, in the New Testament, we’ve all become equal to (and perhaps even a little better than) the Jewish people. There is a huge swath of Christendom that even thinks we’ve replaced the Jews. We think from here on out, it’s all about us and the Jewish people get to sort of hitch their wagon to our train.

That entire attitude is so wrong. Ever since Daniel’s prophecy of the “Seventy Weeks” (lit. “Sevens”) (9:25-27), earth history has been about a 490 year period of Jewish history. The Messiah was “cut off” at the end of the 69^th week (483 years). That means there is one last “Week” of seven years to fulfill God’s Plan of Redemption for the Jewish people. What is this period from Jesus’ crucifixion to the fulfilment of that last seven years? It is the Church Age in which we are living. It is, in fact, massively important. It is God’s great mercy of allowing us Gentile “dogs under the table” to “eat the children’s crumbs” (Mark 7:28). However, notice that we are the dogs and it is the children’s crumbs.

As important as is the Church Age, yet again, this great mercy is only a parenthesis in time. In it, God is fulfilling His promise to Abraham to not only bless his descendants, but also “the whole world” (Gen. 12:3). In our wonderful Lord’s infinite mercy, this parenthesis has now been going on for 2,000 years – but, may I emphasize one more time, this is only a parenthesis. If at this point, you’re doubting my words, go read for yourself Romans chapter 11. Also, if you’re doubting all of this, take your Bible and pinch the pages from Acts 1 to Revelation 22. What do you notice?

One more thing – even from the book of Daniel, if you read it from beginning to end, please notice that the prophetic timeline repeatedly refers to “your people.” In 9:24, Daniel is told, “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people…” In 10:14, the angel informs him, “Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future…” In 12:1, he’s told, “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people will arise…” Who are Daniel’s “people?” The Jews, of course. And if you doubt that, notice when you’re reading through the entire book that, if there is any specific geographic or national reference to what “people” are in view, it is a people associated with Jerusalem and “the beautiful land.”

So, why am I going on about this? Back to boggling my mind – I’ve never really realized just how true this is – that the whole sweep of earth history is Jewish. The timeline is Jewish. The prophetic timeline is Jewish. Through this entire Church Age, though it has lasted 2,000 years, it all has been awaiting the Seventieth “Seven,” what we call the “Seventieth Week of Daniel.” Even Jesus, just before the Cross, was prophesying about that “Seventieth Week” – “So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel…” (Matt. 24:15ff). 

I doubt I’m boggling your mind, but it is just crazy for me to step back and really see that the Bible from cover to cover (and earth history, for that matter) has been about God’s great Plan centered on the Jewish people. From the Garden of Eden, the “Seed of the Woman” who would “crush the head of the serpent” was destined to be Jewish. From Abraham on, it was all about his descendants, the Jewish people. Earth’s timeline is inevitably regulated according the God’s great Plan for the Jewish people. For us to have this idea that somehow we’re very important and “it’s all about us,” is actually to completely misunderstand what is going on. We are a parenthesis.

That, in itself, boggles my mind. However, what is really, really making my head spin is to realize that that “Seventieth Week” is Jewish. It is “the day of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7). Go and read the entirety of Jeremiah chapter 30. What does that chapter say is God’s purpose especially for that final 3 ½ year period of “Jacob’s trouble” – the last half of what we call “the Great Tribulation?” See what the Lord says to the Jewish people, “Your wound is incurable, your injury is beyond healing…I have struck you as an enemy would and punished you as would the cruel, because your guilt is so great and your sins so many” (vv. 12-14).

And then what does He accomplish? “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings; the city will be rebuilt on her ruins…From them will come songs of thanksgiving…So you will be My people, and I will be your God…The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until He fully accomplishes the purposes of His heart. In days to come, you will understand this” (vv. 18-24).

The Lord’s purpose for the Great Tribulation is for Him to finally break the pride of the Jewish people’s heart. You and I grossly underestimate the enormity of the pride in our hearts and just how much pain it takes to finally break us. I believe it’s true for most of us in our waning years – it’s almost shocking to think back how much we made the Lord crush us just to finally be able to say, “We are His people, and He is my God.” It is shocking to me to realize how much the Lord has had to crush me. However, what’s more shocking is the enormity of His love. He loved me so much, He Himself endured the parental pain of crushing me, knowing it was the only way to truly change me. In fact, He even crushed His own Son so He could save me! Reminds me of the song, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Sadly, that same love is what it takes for Him to finally save the Jewish people. They have to be finally crushed. Reading through the Bible, I’ve always been horrified by verses like Isaiah 14:1,2: “A day of the Lord is coming when…I will gather all nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile…” Again sadly, just like us, that’s what it takes to finally save them. We are no better than them. We have the same stony hearts, but what I’m boggling at is the realization the Great Tribulation, the “Day of Jacob’s Trouble,” is specifically and very deliberately Jewish. It is God’s great love for them.

I don’t think I’ve ever really comprehended the enormity of all of this. As I said above, no one has to agree with me and I am 100% ready to acknowledge that prophecy is just cryptic enough we’d better all hold our views humbly and with open hands. However, where all of this leads me is to say that, if I’m right, then the Rapture makes perfect sense. The Seventieth Week is the Day of Jacob’s Trouble – not ours. At some point, the parenthesis has to end and that ancient Jewish timeline has to resume. Consistent with that is the observation: from Revelation 4:1 on, that book reads like the Old Testament, not the New. From then on, if any specific people group is in view, it is the Jews. The “us” becomes people already in heaven: “And they sang a new song: You were slain and with Your blood You purchased us for God from every tribe and language and nation…You have made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God…” (5:9-10).

Daniel was a Jew. The book of Daniel is a Jewish book. You and I have MUCH to learn from it, but let us humbly acknowledge we are the dogs and what we get to eat are the crumbs that have fallen from the children’s table. We are the wild olive branch unnaturally grafted in. The main focus of earth history and God’s great Plan of Redemption is Jewish. If, like that Syro-Phoenician mother, we would humbly admit who we are and who they are, the whole world would hold the Jewish people in the very highest of respect. Yes, they need to be crushed, but then so do we. We, the Church, are generally crushed individually, but the Jews are a nation and ultimately must be crushed as a nation. Right now, as Paul said, God is somehow using us to cause them envy, but in the end, His Plan is about them.

Just as in His promise to Abraham (Gen. 12:2,3; 17:6-8), the focus of that promise was his descendants “and they shall be My people and I will be their God.”) Thankfully, through Jesus, we got included: “...and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

I hope some of this makes sense to you. My head is still spinning. I feel like, for the first time, I really do see the sweep of human history and the when’s and the why’s. Wow. “All praise to Him who reigns above in majesty supreme…” As Daniel says, “The Most High rules!”

 

Daniel 12:5-7 “Angel Talk”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁵And I, Daniel, looked and Behold! – two others standing, one this to the bank of the river and one that to the bank of the river. ⁶And one said to the Man clothed [in] linens who [was] from above to the waters of the river, “Until when the end of the wonders?” ⁷And I heard the Man clothed [in] the linens, who was from above the waters of the river, and He lifted His right [hand] and His left toward the heavens and He swore by [the] One living [to] the ages that [it will be] to a time, times, and a half, and when it is completed [and the] hand of [the] people of holiness [is] broken up, the all of these [things] will be completed.

This is a crazy passage to study. I’ve pretty much always read through this quickly and just left it puzzling over its meaning. As is usually the case with Scripture, as I’ve slowed down and really sought to understand it, it is like a bomb going off in my hands. The challenge now is to try to gather up my frazzled brain and record what I believe the Lord has shown me. I will try. In no particular order…

Notice it begins with “I, Daniel…” I underline the “I” because Hebrew tends not to express the first person pronoun. It sounds strange to us, but, for them, the pronoun is a part of the verb itself. Whenever they do express it, it is always for emphasis. So, why does he have to say, “I, Daniel”? It is because, up to this point, it has been the angel speaking. This is the same angel that has been talking to Daniel ever since the beginning to chapter 10, which is, in itself, crazy to think about as you would go back and read – an angel speaking, and Daniel recording for us so we know what the angel said! So, anyway, now it is Daniel speaking (writing), and he obviously wanted to make that clear.

I’ll probably say more about this later, but it still just boggles my mind to really realize what is going on here. Ever since that beginning in chapter 10, Daniel has been standing here by the Tigris River. Above him is this mighty “angel” whom he described as “a Man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around His waist. His body was like chrysolite, His face like lightning, His eyes like flaming torches, His arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and His voice like the sound of a multitude.” As you can tell by my capitalization, I’m strongly persuaded this is none other then Jesus Himself, what theologians call a “pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.” Many writers refrain from that bold conclusion and think it best to only go so far as to acknowledge it as an angel. However, I can’t even type it without capitalizing the pronouns. For yourself, try reading Revelation 1:12-18, then come back and tell yourself this is only an angel!

So if I’m right, here is Daniel standing by the river with none other than Jesus, the then coming Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, standing over Him, and now it is that glorified Christ speaking -- and Daniel is actually hearing His voice! Not only that, but, once again, there are more angels there with him. In this case, there is one on one side of the river and one on the other. These seem to be in addition to the one who has been talking to him since chapter 10. Then he actually gets to hear one of the angels talking to Jesus!

It fascinates me that what the angel speaks to Jesus is actually a question: “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?” He, the angel, doesn’t know! He’s curious! Again, I’ll say more about this later, but it still boggles my mind to ponder the thought that, like us, there is much angels don’t know, that they are curious (like us), that they have to learn (like us), that this whole, glorious Plan of Redemption, God’s plan for this Creation we live in, is a mystery to them too!

Daniel is really there, really seeing and hearing all of this!

From here to the end of the chapter, what we will read is definitely what I would call “heaven talk.” Like all prophecy, it would seem, what we read sometimes makes sense (we think) and sometimes is just plain baffling. Especially after all these years working my way through Daniel, it is clear to me that prophecy almost always contains some nuggets of truth the Lord wants us to know, but that He bathes them in revelations that will only make sense when they come to pass. As Jesus told His disciples, “When they are fulfilled, then you will know…” In fact, in my mind, this chapter only gets more cryptic with each verse we read. Someone reading might get tired of me saying, “I don’t know,” but I have to confess even beforehand, there is much I don’t know and probably won’t. If there is much angels don’t know, there is no doubt MUCH you and I won’t decipher at least in this world and until those things are fulfilled!

In answer to the angel’s question, “When?”, Jesus raises both His right and left hand and swears by God Himself. Many other writers note the normal procedure, all through the Bible and seemingly throughout human history, is that one raises their right hand to “solemnly swear.” Here Jesus raises both. It would seem obvious that at least one reason is to add to that solemnity. Another thought that strikes me is, I wonder if Jesus, in that very solemnity, is very aware that the fulfillment of all these things will involve His crucifixion? Before this is all over, He knows those two hands will both be nail-scarred? In a sense, as He raises both hands, He is assuming the position of the Cross itself. I don’t know if that is what’s going on, but it sure fits!

He tells the angel (in Daniel’s hearing) that it will be “for a time, times, and half a time.” We’ve encountered this time frame before in Daniel’s prophecies. Back in 7:25, an angel was answering his questions about the fourth beast which will “devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it,” and “another king” who will “speak against the Most High and oppress His saints and try to change the set times and the laws.” The angel then explains, “The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time.”

In my own mind, there is no question this is a period of 3 ½ years. It is also described as 42 months in Rev. 11:2 and 13:5 (which is exactly 3 ½ years), along with 1,260 days in Rev. 11:3 and 12:6. Prophetic years are 360 days (12 months of 30-days each), so 1,260 days is again exactly 3 ½ years and exactly 42 months. On top of all this, it is in the middle of Daniel’s 70^th “seven” that the “Abomination of Desolation” is set up in the temple (9:27). I’ve already demonstrated that Daniel’s seventy “sevens” are years, so the “middle” of a “seven” would also be 3 ½ years.

I have tried to be honest where prophecies go cryptic on us and we should humbly admit when things aren’t as “clear” as we would like. However, this compilation of reference after reference of precise years, months, and days would leave me saying, “If this isn’t 3 ½ years, then words mean nothing.” What I suspect is that this horrible period, which is the part we really acknowledge as the “Great Tribulation,” is so bad, and God’s people will suffer so much, that Jesus swears with both hands raised that it will only be for exactly 3 ½ years. That will assure believers of two things: no matter how bad it is, it will end, and the fact that it is “allowed” to go on for only exactly 3 ½ years = 42 months = 1,260 days will assure them that their Lord and Master, the Most High God, is, in fact, in TOTAL control. 

Speaking of “cryptic,” the last half of verse 7, is to me almost impossible to translate with confidence. The NIV translates this, “When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.” That translation certainly fits the context and I suspect it is the angel’s intended meaning. However, the Hebrew is not at all that clear. If you look above at my “fairly literal” translation, you’ll note that, in verse 7, I have added a lot of [***] words. That is because those words are not in the Hebrew text.

Whenever I do that, I am wanting to acknowledge that I’m adding words which are not there in the Original. As I’ve observed before, compared to English, Hebrew is like a “short-hand” language. In our English-speaking brains, they leave out a LOT. It’s often like we say, “You just had to be there.” Most of the time, their meaning is obvious if we just slow down and think about it. However, sometimes (and especially in prophecies), for us, there simply isn’t enough there to 100% conclude what it means. I am suggesting that is the case with these last words of verse 7.

What I’d prefer to do is simply to be aware of the literal Hebrew itself, leave it at that, and just wait until its fulfillment to be 100% sure what it means. That is precisely what the Lord intends with at least part of His prophecies – “I have told you before so that, when it happens, you will believe.” I’m probably rambling on about this because I believe too many writers seem to think they must provide an absolute explanation for every single verse in the Bible. Rather, we need to acknowledge what our Lord Himself told us – that there may be some things we’ll only understand when they are fulfilled. I personally think the Bible allows us this wonderful confidence of knowing what we can count on our Lord to do and not do, while also containing enough of a cryptic element to keep us asking, searching, and remembering it will always be true, “His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts.” Let us remember the Bible is God’s Word. To know God is to be ever encountering the mysterious.

There is one more thing I see in this angel talk that just floors me, but I think I will close these thoughts here and express it in the next blog.

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.