Daniel Lesson 52

God’s Final instruction to Daniel – Daniel 12:2-13

Today we finish the book of Daniel; this will be our last time in Daniel. Daniel 10-12, the last section of Daniel, the culmination of his revelation, dealt with the rise of the beast, the rise of the man of sin, the rise of the one individual in history who will show more clearly than any other person who has ever lived what total depravity means. He will be given opportunities under God’s sovereignty to reveal just how bad the human race really is in all of its good because the program of this beast will be one of social reform, it will be one of world government, it will be one of supposed world peace, it will be one in which all the schemes that man has tried to give him security, to give him peace on a human viewpoint basis, all these schemes will be allowed to come out and really show themselves for what they are, so that in eternity no creature can raise a counter objection to God’s plan, that God, you never permitted us to experiment with the other side.

This is going to settle all the desires to experiment the other way; God, you never gave us a chance to choose, God, you never allowed us to really use our ingenuity apart from your grace, now God if you had allowed us to do that we could have come up with something equal or better than Your plan. But all of that, all of those objections will be silenced by the demonstration at the end of history of man and his own schemes. That’s the significance of the beast, not just to fill our a prophetic chart, to go to a prophecy conference and arrange the tribulation and all the details thereof in one big grand scheme. That’s not what we’re here for. The book of Daniel was written to give political wisdom and more than that, theological wisdom. So we’ve seen the rise of the beast.

Then beginning in Daniel 11:36 we saw his kingdom begin to break up. Verse 40 was the invasion from the king of the south and the king of the north, which happens, apparently, at the mid point of the tribulation, and it may be the first phase of the breakup of the kingdom of the antichrist. It is to show that man’s schemes of world peace simply will not hold together; all that comes is pieces. And finally we saw that as a result of this last campaign it will be preparatory to bringing all the armies of the world together in the valley of Armageddon in preparation for the great day of the battle of the Lord God Almighty spoken of in the book of Revelation. The last chapter that man will write in history will be war, not peace, forever again showing the truth of James 4 that we war because, not of social conditions, not because the political system is wrong, but because basically mankind is wrong, and that all the schemes of the modern revolutionaries, whether the French Revolution of 1789 or the Russian Revolution in 1917, or others, whatever the radical movements are they always insist on the same old story; same old song, second verse, and that is that if we would change the institutions we can change man.

God’s theme is exactly opposite, you must change man first to change his institutions, and between Christianity and communism, and between the Bible and radicalism, there can be no compromise, we are headed in two different directions 180 degrees apart and we just cannot agree on anything and we might as well state the case frankly, there is no agreement between the Bible and most modern systems of revolution. Don’t ever fall for that little trap, the American Revolution was not a revolution in the sense of the French or the Russian. As Alexander Hamilton himself stated, the American Revolution was a counter revolution, it was a revolution backwards to gain rights that had once been lost. The American Revolution can never be compared with the 1917 revolution in Russia or the 1789 revolution in France. But all of that results from insights obtainable from the book of Daniel.

Now we come to Daniel 12:1 and the last part of this book. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” “At that time” speaks of this mid point of the tribulation when all hell breaks loose, when there’s an invasion from the south and an invasion from the north. Here’s the tribulation, which by Daniel 9 we know the seven year treaty made with the nation by the beast, midpoint is when we have the kings and the beginning of the struggle which goes on and on to these last three and one half years, all the way to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is those last three and one half years of the tribulation that are called the REAL tribulation in the Bible. When you see the word, “the great tribulation” and terms like this in Scripture, it doesn’t refer to all of those seven years; it refers to those last three and a half years.

“At that time,” in those last three and a half years, “Michael will stand up,” for the Bible insists that the universe is inhabited by spiritual beings that are bodiless, that there is life outside of the domain of the planet earth, this life consists of angelic beings. And these angelic beings have ranks and they are divided into the evil ones and the good ones. This is throughout, especially the apocalyptic literature of the Bible. Michael is the leader of the elect angels. He is the one who is the commander of the structure of these angels. He is the one underneath the Lord Jesus Christ who commands the angelic sphere of Jesus Christ’s army. Jesus Christ’s army has two great parts, two great corps, one angelic and one human. And of the angelic part Michael is the commander. “…the great prince,” the archangel, “who stands for the children of Thy people,” so Michael has as one of his ministries, besides being the chief angel, this archangel has the job of protecting physically the nation Israel in history. Whether he was active in the Yom Kippur war we do not know, but the point of Michael’s ministry down through the eras of time is to preserve the physical presence of the Jew. Every attack upon the physical existence of the Jew will meet the opposition of angelic counter response under Michael’s command.

“…Michael stands for the children of Thy people,” and he shall stand up at that time and from our past study of the book of Daniel we’ve noticed that these angels are activated in some way which we don’t really know, but they’re activated in some way by prayers of believers. We studied at the beginning of Daniel 10 how this angel that was talking with Daniel was helped for three weeks, he was helped by Michael. Now what was going on during those three weeks? Daniel was praying. From that passage and other passages, we dealt with at that time, for this principle; that believers, when we pray for our fourth divine institution, our intercession, commanded in 1 Timothy 2 and other passages, our intercession as believer priests in some way links up with the unseen realms in history, involving angels, and these angels then exert their influence on the nation. So in a way angels are dependent upon the intercessory ministry of believers. If that thesis is correct, and we look at the verb “stand up” in verse 1, we must conclude at the mid point of the tribulation there will be a revival among the Jews and you will have Jews who trust in Jesus Christ at this point, who then begin to intercede for their nation. As a result of their intercession, Michael and his angels are activated to defend the nation.

Exactly what happens, if you hold the place, is given in the book of Revelation. Turn to Revelation 12:6, the beast has begun to assume control, final control over the holy land. He has erected his abomination of desolation in the temple and demands that all men worship him as God. He will begin a movement intellectually and politically and religiously that has never before been seen in the history of humanity and this is why it’s useless to say what is it going to look like, because every passage we go to study about what the beast is going to do insists on telling us over and over again that what he’s going to do is something totally different than has ever been done. Well if it’s totally different from what has ever been done, at least in its major details, then obviously we can’t sit here and speculate on what he’s going to do. All we know, it’s going to be something very, very different than the human race has ever seen before.

Well, this no sooner gets started, in Revelation 12:6, when the woman, who is a symbol in this passage, who represents the godly remnant of Israel, “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days,” twelve hundred and sixty days; divide that by thirty and you’ll get forty-two months, three and one half years. [7] “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon,” which is Satan, “and the dragon fought and his angels, [8] And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. [9] And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. [10] And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”

So there’s going to be an upheaval in the unseen realms around this planet. That upheaval in the unseen realm will have repercussions in the seen realm. There will be geophysical disturbances that will accompany this kind of thing. Men will know something is going on, they may not know what is going on but there’ll be no question something is going on.

You’ll notice too in this passage, in verse 9 and in verse 10 two of the great ministries of Satan at this hour, ministries that most people don’t even know about because they’re too busy thinking of Satan in some sort of a gross way, he goes around and gets people drunk or something. I never understood that kind of thinking because nowhere in the Bible does Satan ever touch a drop. Satan’s never had sex, never touched a drop and he’s obeyed most of the moral principles the human race holds to. There’s only one problem, he is the most evil creature who has ever lived, which obviously shows you that obeying the surface demands of morality and being evil can be done quite easily.

In verse 9 we find that Satan deceives the whole world… the whole world. There’s only one way of interpreting that passage, that is every nation of men today is being systematically deceived by Satan. Every nation, and this is why we are to pray for our nation. That’s your obligation as a believer, as a member of the body of Christ, to pray for you nation. You’re finding out from passages like this why. And in verse 10 notice something else that Satan is busy doing today, accusing our brethren day and night. He is the prosecuting attorney in the court of heaven; that’s his picture, for the word satan is the word used in Old Testament jurisprudence for the prosecuting attorney. That’s what Satan means. Do you realize that “Satan” is not a proper noun? It’s like Christ, it’s not His name, it’s an office. He’s a Satan or a prosecutor. So you could if you want to translate it accurately every time you see “Satan” in the Bible… his real personal name is Lucifer, but his office is as prosecutor, so if you want to substitute prosecutor for Satan go ahead and do so and you’ll get the correct image. He prosecutes us day and night; in other words, every time we sin, every time we sin and don’t know it or whether we sin and we do know it, Satan is constantly claiming us as his own and Jesus Christ is constantly the defense attorney before the Father, constantly claiming us for His own. This goes on and on and on and on and on, notice it says day and night, day and night, constant. So if you think you have problems in this life that you’re aware of on a small scale, understand that you’ve got even more serious problems going on in the unseen realm constantly. Fortunately most of us don’t know that or we’d worry silly about that.

Turn back to Daniel 12. Michael stands up, the final battle of history is about to begin, a battle that is not involving just human armies on the earth in the land of Israel, but also involves armies in heaven. And as this battle begins the Bible insists here in Daniel 12 and again Jesus does in Matthew 24, that the world is going to see a time of trouble like it has never seen since the day of the flood. Notice what it says, “such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” There will be a time of tremendous agony on the face of this earth; agony that will include sickness and disease of epidemic proportions; agony that will include the destruction of the world’s crops; crop failures massively, and only today are we beginning to understand, we in America have been sitting with our granaries filled, with surplus wheat, and right now we understand there are only a 20 day food supply in the world. We are operating on a three week margin and that’s all there is, for the entire planet earth at this time. So basically you take the entire food supply and divide it among the consuming people, we’ve only got food being grown out three weeks ahead of the time we’re eating it. And of course a lot of this is due to our own foolishness because we have mismanaged resources; it’s not due to the fact that God has caused us to be over populated, that’s just a scapegoat to avoid moral responsibility.

But anyway, at this point there’s going to be tremendous trouble, where food supplies are going to finally cave in, this narrow, fragile, big edifice that we’ve built up is finally going to come toppling down. And at that time, Daniel 12:1 says, “thy people,” now the people who are not premillennialist students of the Bible, those who believe in an amillennial or postmillennial position, that is people who believe history is going to go on until Christ comes again, and then that’s the end of history, or people who believe that history is going to improve until Christ comes again, the postmill, both of those positions have a problem at this point with the words “thy people.” “Thy people,” if we are to interpret that phrase literally can only mean Daniel’s people.

And who are Daniel’s people? Daniel’s people is the nation Israel. It is not the Church, so we’re talking sometime down in the future about a resurgent nation Israel and “thy people,” which is the way this phrase always occurs, everywhere else in the book of Daniel everybody is agreed that “thy nation” is Israel. But then because you get here in verse 1, somehow because we don’t accept the literal Old Testament, then this word miraculously, someone waves a wand and now “thy people” becomes the Church, in some strange way. But we don’t believe that here, we are premillennialists and we believe that we should interpret the Bible literally throughout and when it says “thy people” it means “thy people,” that is, Israel.

So, “there was a nation … at that time thy people,” Israel, “shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” That means not all of Israel but the godly remnant of Israel, those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Written in the book” is the Book of Life.

Now Daniel 12:2, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” When you read verse 2 you can obviously see it’s talking about the resurrection. Now why is it frequently when you read the popular articles in the newspaper or in the classroom, someone lectures on the history of religion or something, or you have a Bible is literature course, often times the statement is made that this verse is the first time the Bible ever speaks of the doctrine of the resurrection. These people are so imbued with human viewpoint evolution that they must interpret even the history of Israel as one slowly evolving set of beliefs, and so they say, aha, the book of Daniel is a late book in the Old Testament, it’s toward the end of the Old Testament in the Hebrew canon, not in ours, but in the Hebrew canon it’s toward the back and they say see, this shows you the evolution of religious thinking and finally as things go higher and higher and higher, ever onward and ever upward, we come to the doctrine of the resurrection.

Now let’s just say wait a minute, let’s look at the facts before we start ramming, cramming and jamming everything into an evolutionary mold. Let’s look at a few verses; turn to Matthew 22:23, here Jesus was asked the question about the doctrine of the resurrection; He was asked because in his day there were people, the Sadducees who disbelieved in the resurrection. So, “The same day came to him the Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, [24] Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. [25] Now there were with us seven brothers; and the first when he married his wife, died, and having no issue, left his wife unto his brother. [26] Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. [27] And last of all the woman died also. [28] Therefore, in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her.”

Obviously since these people do not believe in the resurrection, and yet they’re talking about the resurrection, you can tell it’s a trap; they’re trying to show Jesus, you stupid ignoramus, you see you don’t believe in the resurrection because the resurrection is self-contradictory; what are you going to do about marriage. And so Jesus in verse 29 gives the classic answer, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. [30] For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven.” Marriage is a temporal institution. I see some people heaving a sigh of relief… Verse 31, “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, [32] I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?”

Now you follow verse 32 closely because Jesus uses a very quick, logic point here, and many have said Jesus was mistaken in what He did in this verse; this is a mistaken logical deduction, because if Jesus is right, He is going to show us that the doctrine of resurrection not only was present in Daniel’s day, but the doctrine of resurrection was there in Jacob’s day, in the day of the book of Genesis. He says, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Now how does that answer the question of the resurrection? What He is saying is that this proves that if God IS the God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He still is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and moreover that implies that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still live. And it also implies by virtue of the promises that what the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, namely a land, a seed, a world wide blessing, that if God is their God, then He’s got to deliver on the promises to them personally, and if that’s the case, the only way He can do it is by means of the resurrection. So if God is to be truly the God who delivers, there’s got to be a resurrection, and moreover Jesus argues the doctrine of the resurrection is implicit in the Abrahamic Covenant.

So nonsense to the people who say that resurrection is a product of evolutionary development. If you want other references to this and trace this down some time, Hebrews 11:19 shows that Abraham, when he offered Isaac, believed in the doctrine of the resurrection. Some other references are Job 19:25-26; Isaiah 26:19; Hosea 13:14. And the classic reference of resurrection, Psalm 16:9, written slightly before the time of Daniel, David says, “My heart is glad, my glory rejoices; my flesh also shall rest in hope. [10] For thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither will Thou permit thy Holy One to see corruption.” That is a prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It says “You will not leave my soul in hell,” it doesn’t say his spirit, it says his soul and his soul involves both spirit and body. So that verse teaches resurrection. So how can these people say that the doctrine of resurrection slowly evolved in the nation Israel. They can only say it by ignoring the passages I just gave you, that’s how they can say it.

Back to Daniel 12:2, we’re going to be switching around here because Daniel 12 just happens to cut into various other passages in other portions of the Bible. “And many of them who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,” now here again our amillennial and postmillennial friends have some problems because no matter how you read verse 2 you’ve got to read it as a partial resurrection, not a full resurrection, a partial resurrection. It doesn’t say all, it says some, only “some that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,” so we’ve got this picture; at the end of the tribulation, as Michael stands up for the people toward the end, there will be a resurrection, but it will be a partial resurrection. Then in a clause which amplifies this, its distinguished, “many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,” in the Hebrew it reads this way, “these,” what is that talking about, the first word, “these” refers to those who will be resurrected to eternal life.

Now here is a historic first, this is chronologically the first place eternal life is talked about in the Bible. And notice the context, it’s talked about in terms of resurrection life, eternal life. When John, therefore, in the Gospel of John, talks about you can have eternal life today, he means you can have the first installment on eternal life today, not the whole thing because you can’t get resurrection yet. “Some to everlasting life,” these. All right, these refers back to the partial resurrection, “these.” And “those” because the second “these” when you see it in this kind of thing it would be “these” and “those.” So the author turns, “these” Daniel, some of the people who sleep will be resurrected, “these to the resurrection of life, and those,” that is those who aren’t going to be resurrected, eventually will be, but it will be to a resurrection of “ shame and everlasting contempt.”

So distinguished in verse 2 are two phases of resurrection, a partial resurrection and then the other part, it’s divided in half. And at the end of the tribulation only the righteous are resurrected, not the unrighteous. And if that’s the case, then when are the unrighteous resurrected. Because if you don’t believe in the millennium, this is the end of history, and if you’re going to have any resurrection at all, you’d better have one pretty quick because history is ending here. So this is one of the evidences for the premillennial position; Daniel 12:2 teaches a partial resurrection; when does the other part happen. Turn to Revelation 20:4, this speaks of the same thing as Daniel 12:2, “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. [5] But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. [6] Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection; on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. [7] And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, [8] And shell go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, God and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.”

Now I have a feedback card about this Gog and Magog in verse 8, is this the same as Ezekiel, and the answer is no; this is a retroflection. In some way we would say today that so and so met his waterloo and the idea is that we’re not talking about a reenactment of Napoleon and Wellington, it was simply saying that there’s a battle that reminds you of that battle. And the same here, the use of Gog and Magog, obviously it’s allegorical in this case because it’s referring to all nations. And in Ezekiel 38 and 39 it’s not. So this is referring back to the battle of Ezekiel 38 and 39 and the imagery of that battle, and is saying that this will once again happen and it will remind everybody of this.

Revelation 20:9, “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. [10] And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever.” And it goes on and describes it, and then it describes the fact that there will be this other resurrection, the resurrection of damnation.

So we have Revelation 20 solved the problem left up in the air by Daniel 12; that is, you have the partial resurrection at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have one thousand years of the millennial kingdom, and then you have a resurrection of the evil one at the end. There will also, of course, be a resurrection of those who died during the millennium, but that’s not mentioned in this passage. So you have to major resurrections separated by the thousand years; one at the beginning and one at the end.

Turn back to Daniel 12 and let’s ask who is it that form “the righteous?” In Daniel 12:2 it says “And many of them that sleep … shall awake.” Who are these that still are sleeping at the end of the tribulation, who are still dead at the end of the tribulation? There are two categories, Old Testament saints and tribulational saints. [tape turns] … who are not left sleeping in the earth at the end of the tribulation; third category, Christians, because the Christians have been transformed by the rapture out ahead of the tribulation. So actually this is a very interesting point but you probably will proceed in resurrection, if you are a believer you’ll get your resurrection before Noah, Daniel, Abraham, and all the great men of the Old Testament. Now what gives you the privilege of receiving your resurrection body before they do? Only one thing, God’s grace, He has put you in union with His own Son; you are in the body of Christ and those men were not; they were saved and they are saved for eternal destiny of blessing, but not as Christians. You have a unique privilege joined to the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and one of these privileges is that you will receive your resurrection body first. That’s nothing we earn, nothing that we deserve, it’s grace all the way.

Now it says in this verse that after this happens, the partial resurrection in verse 2, Daniel 12:3, “They that be wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever.” Two comments about this; the word “they that be wise” sakal is the verb form of it, in this case it’s what they call the hiphil stem and should be translated “cause to be wise,” and is put in parallel with a second verb, to make righteous. Now if you take a concordance and look how those two words are used you’ll come to the conclusion quite easily that those words refer to teachers of the Word of God. These are the prophets of the Old Testament era, these are the great priests that taught the people the Torah, that caused them to know the doctrines of the Word of God. And these people have a place of honor in eternity; they are the ones that stood up for the Word when it was unpopular to do so. They were the ones that put up with all the believers who despised the Word of God and wanted all the gimmicks. They are the ones that stuck it out in the Word of God.

And they are going to shine as the stars is an idiom much the same as we use it today for so and so is a star in athletics; so and so is a star in drama; so and so is a star in… we use exactly the same expression, we never think of our every day English expression of linking it up here exactly the same way. These people will be outstanding and their outstanding character will be at last recognized. See, the people who stick with the Word are never recognized in their greatness in history. If you stick with the Word don’t expect that men are going to recognize your greatness. The greatness that comes from your identification and application of the Word of God to every area of life will not be recognized. If it is, that’s just frosting on the cake but you cannot go ahead in life expecting people to recognize the correctness of your position. That will come and here’s the assurance of it; this is why Daniel writes this, he says those people look to the future, the eternal city, that has foundations, and because they were future oriented people, they could take the pressure in the present.

But people who always have their eyes focused on the immediate present can never take the pressures of the present because they’re always looking to be vindicated now, oh nobody understands me and all the rest of it. Listen, the Lord Jesus Christ understands you perfectly; you have the most competent priest that you could ever desire to have praying for you at this hour; you are perfectly understood, Romans 8 says the Holy Spirit perfectly understands your depraved heart. And this is why He is praying the way He is about certain things that ought to be changed. So you are understood. But you cannot expect some open recognition in the final eternal star sense until the future, that’s what it’s all about. So verse 3 is the giving of rewards amplified later on in the New Testament. Of course again, verses 2-3 apply only to Old Testament saints; the Church has done this a few years before this will happen but at the rapture.

Now Daniel 12:4, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” So the angel directs that this vision be finished; be sealed doesn’t mean to hide it, it just means to finish the book, put the book together Daniel, and leave it, don’t actively teach this book; that’s what the angel is saying. This book can be taught as far as Scripture but don’t make a crusade about it; you’re not going to understand it until the last days, there are passages in this book that will not be understood ever until that hour of history arrives, and then all of a sudden, ah, now I see what Daniel is talking about. This is why there is ambiguity in this passage, this is why there are details of prophecy that good men are going to differ on, because it hasn’t happened yet.

What does the angel say, “many shall run to and fro,” and the most competent Hebrew scholars attach that last clause not as a coordinate clause but as a subordinate clause which means, “in order that knowledge be increased.” So a characteristic that will occur when this book is finally understood, that men will be going across the face of the earth seeking God’s Word, but not finding it. There’s a parallel reference to check the grammar and check the interpretation of this verse. Amos 8:12, this is talking about a future time to Amos’ day, but the language is identical to the passage in Daniel 12. “And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.”

Now what is this talking about? It’s talking about the fact that men will begin to hunger and thirst for the content of revelation, and there will be no revelation given to them. When that stage is reached, when believers are under such tremendous pressure, not because they don’t have the New Testament, the New Testament will be read during the era at the end, so you are in the tribulation, and here are believers going on and some unsaved people living, everybody is looking around for more detailed information. There’s a question of degree, not of time here. They’re looking around for more information, Lord, what is happening to history; it’s going to be obvious, men are going to be terrified about these events that are happening and taking place, and they’re going to seek, seek, seek, seek, seek all over the place, give us understanding, what is going on in our day. This man gets up in western Europe, he begins to set up a culture we’ve never seen before, there’s no analogy in our past history, we don’t know how to judge it, we’ve got all of these cosmic disturbances, we’ve got geophysical disturbances that we’ve never seen happen before, we’ve got physical phenomena occurring on a catastrophic scale, we need information. So the angel says Daniel, write this book because this book will finally be understood only in that future hour when men are in the state of panic. “Running to and fro” is panic, they will be panicking for insight into the Scripture. And when men reach this stage, then they will understand, says the angel.

That’s the end of the vision, verse 4; verses 5 and following is the conclusion to the book. And in his conclusion the angels are pictured for us because of their formation. One of the great things that we are missing today in our society, because of our anti-military spirit, is a great military parade, with armor, aircraft, etc, a military review. Few Americans have ever seen the thrill of a large military formation. It’s tremendous and a very moving scene when it’s done correctly. Now at this point the Scripture closes the book of Daniel with a great scene. These angels are standing in a certain way that shows a formation that teaches a certain doctrine. Now as we look at this last concluding vision of angels you want to watch how they’re standing and what position they’re standing in, for that very position is a standing [can’t understand word] summary of the entire book of Daniel. What’s been the entire book of Daniel? Divine viewpoint wisdom of history, what a believer has to trust in as history draws to a close. And so to emphasize the point the Holy Spirit, so to speak, draws the curtain back and so we see not only the content of what the angels are talking to Daniel, we see how they were standing when they were talking to Daniel.

Daniel 12:5, “Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river. [6] And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? [7] And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. [8] And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? [9] And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. [10] Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. [11] And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. [12] Blessed is he that waits, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. [13] But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”

Now the strange message and the strange position of angels; there are three beings in this picture beside Daniel. Recall back at the vision, he’s on the river Tigris, he’s taken a three week vacation, remember he prayed for three weeks and he’s taken a leave of absence from his office in the state department to just get his head straight on what is going on. And so as he walks along the banks of the Tigris he was overcome with this vision, in which the preincarnate Jesus Christ, God the Son, appeared to this prophet of the Old Testament.

Now how did he appear? Daniel says I want to leave you with a picture of what I saw, and what I saw as I stood here, on one side of the bank and the other, I saw an angel sitting on this side and one standing on this side, and in the middle and over the river stood a man with linen. Now we know who that “man in linen” is. He’s the same man in linen that appears in the book of Revelation 1, He is Jesus Christ, in this case in His preincarnate form, before He was born of a virgin. But Jesus Christ stands over the waters and on both banks those two angels that had helped Daniel in the early part of Daniel 10.

What else do we notice about this passage? You wouldn’t get it from the English but in the original there’s a very, very strange word used for “river,” strange because it’s never used of the Tigris. This particular word is only used for one river in all the world, and that’s the river Nile. And it’s also used in the Exodus discourse about the breaking of the Red Sea and the tearing up and the deliverance. And so the Word, we’ll put it in quotes, Daniel says they were standing on “the river,” now we know physically it was the Tigris River but when Daniel goes to talk about that river he uses words that recall to our mind the Exodus. Now what have we got to say? What is Exodus forever a picture of? Of physical deliverance from disaster. What happened? God smashed the way through the Egyptian army, opened up the river and you have the road of redemption. And what do we have here? We have the Lord Jesus Christ posed upon the river, the barrier between man and his freedom; and Christ stands right poised over the very waters and as He stands poised He holds His two hands up in the air and he gives an oath, and the oath is that the time of testing, Daniel, that I have just told you about, I swear by My own being, will only be three and one half years. What is the conclusion of this picture? That Jesus Christ Himself, because He loves His people, at the end hour of history swears that he will halt the pressure when they get just to the final breaking point.

Now Christ Himself referred to this ministry in the New Testament. Turn to Matthew 24:21-22, before He died the Lord Jesus Christ briefed His disciples on what they could expect and what the Church ought to be teaching down over the centuries. And He said in verses 21-22, “For then shall be great tribulation,” same language as Daniel 12, “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” “…those days shall be shortened!”

Now he says that those days will be three and one half years, 1260 days from the time the antichrist walks into the city of Jerusalem and demands worship of himself, all through the horrors of the deliverance until Christ Himself puts His foot on the Mount of Olives, will be 1260 days, and Jesus swears that this will be quick enough that they can take it. And when is this last formation saying, with the Lord Jesus Christ suspended over the water, that must be broken for freedom, and His two angels, His assistants on either side of the bank, what is that saying? It’s saying nothing more than 1 Corinthians 10:13 has always said, there shall never a testing, never a trial break a believer but such as God has provided in advance that we may be able to bear it. What does Jesus say here? I will see to it, believers, in that day that I personally will shorten those days so you can survive; there will be no excuse that you can’t survive, I will see to it that you never get tested above that which you are able to take it.

Back to Daniel 12, the Lord of history promises by His own character, Him that lives forever and ever, that believers would be divinely protected. And Daniel says, I don’t understand. By the way, that shows you something else about these Biblical writers, did they really understand the revelation they were getting, and the answer is no. And here’s one of your classic references. These men could not have made this book up by themselves for the simple fact that they admit that they themselves don’t understand this. Here you’ve got the man saying, Lord, I don’t understand what you told me to write, and the Lord says write it anyway, because this isn’t just for you, it’s for future people who will need this information, they’ll understand. So he is cut off in verse 9, he wants to know, Lord, can You explain this, because you see up to this point the Lord has always answered Daniel. Daniel wanted to know what’s going on in history, God told him. Daniel wanted to know what was happening to the nation Israel, God told him. Now Daniel says Lord, could you tell me now about this future time? And the Lord says no, I will not tell you.

Daniel 12:9, “And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. [10] Many shall be purified,” and he gives three characteristics of the end time, “Many shall be purified and made white, and tried,” so you will have sanctification on an extremely rapid scale during the tribulation, obviously it’s only seven years long, people are going to get sanctified real fast. It’s going to be real high pressure sanctification; you will have to become sanctified rapidly in those days in order to just physically survive. The second thing he says, “but the wicked shall do wickedly,” like you’ve never seen, you won’t see evil creep across the face of the earth like you have never seen it before, evil, real evil, we’re not talking just about the moral/immoral things, I mean the satanically evil things, the schemes of human good that cruse people in the end. And the third characteristic of the tribulation is that while all this disaster is going on, people who even have the Word of God available in the libraries, and in books, they will see this take place right in front of their nose and they will never once guess what’s happening, it says that “none of the wicked shall understand;” none of them, none of them faced with the disaster will never see what’s happening until its too late, “but the wise” those who are believers and who have taken in the Word of God, “shall understand,” and they’ll be able to interpret this.

Then he concludes with a very strange two verses. Daniel 12:11, “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” What’s that, we thought that always before it was 1260 days, why the extra month? It says “from the time that the daily sacrifice be taken, and the abomination set up” and it doesn’t say to what, it just says from to something, and then it goes on in verse 12 and adds some more. [12] “Blessed is he that waits, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” Here’s 1335 days, here you have an addition of 30, here you have an addition of 45, you have a total addition of 75 days beyond the end of the tribulation.

Why? We don’t know exactly why except in two passages of Scripture in the Bible we have two events that have to occur in the 75 day period. One event is Matthew 25:31-46, the judgment of the nations; Christ will return them to the national boundaries of all people who are living at that day on the basis of how they have handled the Jew during the tribulation, whether they have been friendly to Jewish believers or unfriendly, whether they have persecuted them or whether they have hid them in their homes, that will be the condition. Nazism was a foreview of the tribulation. Except in this case you’ll have Jewish believers, not Jewish unbelievers. And in that case the end of this 1260 day period you will have a 75 day period during which the nations will be judged, as given in Matthew 25:31-46 and you will have the various cleansing of the land described in Ezekiel 20:34-38. So you have the renovation of the earth and you will have the judgment of the nations. By the way, this is not a seven year clean up period, which is why I put Ezekiel 38-39 out ahead of the tribulation. Seventy-five days.

We also might infer, and this is only a speculative deduction, this is not part of dogma, but it’s a speculative deduction, that those 75 days the angel communicated to Daniel to show him grace. Daniel, we have shortened the tribulation from 1335 days down to 1260, we have deliberately shortened it that the times that the elect be saved, because if we let it go on just 30 more days the pressure would be so intense there would be no physical survival for the human race. Now if that deduction is correct it will show you the extreme situation of suffering in those last days; no food, no water, no medicine, and no protection against the complete planetary disturbances and the physical disturbances that are going on. But Jesus Christ in the closing view, and remember this book is the last view that Christ has that you see in the Old Testament, is given right here, it’s the last time He shows up in physical form in the Old Testament. He was swearing the no believer will ever be tested above that which He is able; that’s the last picture of Christ given in the Old Testament.

And then the last verse, Daniel 12:13, “But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” The three phases of human life, “go thy way” means Daniel, you are a prime minister in this nation, you go and continue to subdue the earth; don’t just sit around like so many Christians do, always worrying, is the rapture going to happen tomorrow, sell all my possessions, don’t do anything, sit around waiting for the rapture. Go thy way, do thy calling, the last words I gave to you, Jesus said, was to pursue your calling, and don’t stop pursuing it because you worry I’m going to come back; I come back, that’s My business; I’m not telling you when I’m coming back, Christ says, all I said is I’m going to come back at the proper time, until that time, mind your business, which is getting on with the task at hand, don’t stop; don’t stop and don’t retire being prime minister of this nation.

“And you shall rest,” means you shall die; you will die, Daniel, and you’ll be in the intermediate state, and “in thy lot at the end of the days” you will stand, you’ll be resurrected. And that’s the message that Christ gave Daniel and that’s the message that Christ would give us, that Jesus Christ as Lord of history has a plan, but its His and not ours, it will be done alone of Him, He is an omnipotent protection in any trial.

A simple deduction by way of application is that if Jesus Christ can control the pressures of the tribulation which are the most, then He can control the tribulations in your life today because they aren’t anywhere near what they’re going to be in the tribulation.