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.