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!