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!