Read the Back of the Book

Daniel 12:4-7

We have always had people who attempt to look into the future: Stargazers, fortune tellers, wizards, palm readers, seers, prophets, predictors, mediums, stock traders.

But why? Why is it that man so desperately seems to want to know the future? Well, maybe three reasons. Number one is just curiosity. We want to know because we don’t know. And there’s a certain amount of anxiety about what you don’t know. Secondly, to capitalize on what is coming. If men could know the future, they could know how to play the stock market; they could know about all the things that are going to come in the world and they could hedge against it. In other words, greed, ambition or selfish fulfillment might be a reason people want to know the future. Thirdly, and I think most significantly, people want to know the future because of fear. It is what we don’t know that scares us. It is what might happen.

But the only true source of knowledge about the future is the Bible, the lamp to our feet and the light to our path. And Daniel is one of the great prophetic books of the Bible. Now why does God tell us about the future? Four reasons:

First of all, God tells us about the future to authenticate His Word. Proof of the veracity of the Bible is that it predicts the future. And then when the thing it predicts come to pass, it’s a convincing argument that God wrote it.

Secondly, God tells us about the future in order to reveal His sovereignty. He wants us to know that He is charting the course of human history.

Thirdly, I believe that God tells us about the future in order to both motivate and comfort His people. When we know the Lord is coming, we get busy living for Him. John says, “He that hath this hope purifieth himself.” When we know He’s coming, we are comforted that no matter what happens in the world, it’s all going to come out in the end with the Lord Jesus Christ reigning as King of kings.

Fourthly, I believe God reveals the future in order to admonish sinners and warn them of coming judgment.

Now, all four of these purposes have been seen remarkably in the book of Daniel. We have seen God give history before it happened. We can look back and see that it all came to pass exactly as He said it would. We have seen that God is sovereignly controlling all of history. We have seen God make great effort to comfort and also motivate His people Israel through these prophecies as well as to warn the lost.

But there’s still a lot of mystery, isn’t there? For the more we know, the more we know that we don’t know. And so, as we come to chapter 12 and we say to ourselves, “We’re already at the end of the book? You mean there’s no more? I’m not sure I understand it all.” That’s right. Don’t feel badly, I don’t understand it all either. The only thing that I can understand is what God says and He hasn’t said it all. Would you believe that was Daniel’s problem too? He didn’t get it all either. We know more than he did. We also have Revelation, which adds much to our understanding. We have the Olivet discourse, as Jesus answered about the end times in relation to the Jews.

So Daniel in chapter 12 is still somewhat mystified. At best, the prophecies are sketches, not full-color scapes. At best, the figures are stick figures. Daniel and other prophets of his day were so far away from the end times that they were limited in their perception.

1 Peter 1:10

¹⁰ Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:

That has to do with the coming of Christ and His provision for a gracious salvation.

1 Peter 1:11

¹¹ Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

In other words, what it’s saying is they actually were getting the prophecies and then going back and studying the meaning of the very prophecies they were receiving about Christ.

1 Peter 1:12

¹² Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

They had a thirst to know more than they could understand.

Matthew 13:17

¹⁷ For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Jesus is saying, many of the prophets and many of the righteous men wanted to see the coming of Messiah. They wanted to see His arrival and to see Him and to hear Him.

Matthew 13:16

¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

They didn’t have that privilege.

And so, in the closing section from verse 4 to 13, the Lord clarifies some final things. Yet even after the clarification, He leaves an abundant mystery for the future.

The content sealed

verse 4             Now roll up the scroll and shut it. That’s all. That’s the end. Seal it until the last days.

The fullest understanding of Daniel will not come until the great tribulation. During the time of the tribulation, I believe the book of Daniel will be reopened by the people of God and studied all over again. And they’ll understand it as clearly as if they were reading the daily newspaper because all of the events will come to pass.

Now, let’s go to the rest of verse 4. At that time, “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Just look at the transportation explosion of this past century, and how knowledge increases exponentially. Certainly that is an implication that could be drawn. But look at it in a more literal way: many people in the tribulation are going to run to and fro, trying to find out answers to what’s going on. And they’re going to find the book of Daniel, Revelation, and Jesus’ sayings, and at that point, their knowledge will be increased.

I believe that when the time of the end comes upon the world, the Jews are going to run around and try to find an answer. Why is this happening? Why is this holocaust again upon us? Why are all these disasters coming? Why are these events taking place? Painstakingly, they will study to find the answers. And I believe when they come to the unrolling of the scroll of Daniel, knowledge will be increased. They’ll get their answers. They’ll finally understand.

Go backwards to verse 3         Daniel will be used by God to turn many to righteousness, centuries, millennia after he’s dead because he was the human author of this book which will give them answers in the time of the tribulation.

But when?

The chronology set

v. 5          Two other angels. According to chapter 10 verse 4, he’s at the river Hiddekel, which is another name for the Tigris. This is where he was when the whole thing began. Anytime God wanted to confirm some great revelation, He confirmed it in the mouth of two witnesses.

v. 6          The angels are just as curious as Daniel. Jesus made the statement that no one knows when, “not even the angels of heaven,” – not even the Son of Man, but – “only the Father.”

1 Peter 1, “These things the angels desired to look into.” They’re just as fascinated by the prophecies as we are.

Who’s the man in linen? Chapter 10 tells us He is none other than the preincarnate Christ. Isn’t it marvelous that in the conclusion of Daniel’s life as he approaches 90 years of age, his last and final vision is a vision of the one who will bring it all to pass? He’s elevated, in the middle above the river, with angels on either side, subordinate to Him.

It’s kind of reminiscent of Psalm 29:10 where it says the Lord sitteth upon the flood, or the waters.

The angels want to know when it’s going to come to pass. Why would the angels want to know that? Well, I think the angels are probably, even in Daniel’s time, pretty sick of fighting demons and they’d just soon get it over with, don’t you think? They must have gotten a little bit weary like those angels earlier in the book who had to constantly fight up in space to get the work of God done. Michael’s been defending the people of Israel for a long time. And they’re just as anxious to see the redemption as you and I.

v. 7a         Whenever a Jew wanted to make an oath, he raised his right hand. And we do that, don’t we? Go to court to testify, you raise your right hand, promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Now when you raise both hands, that’s about as far as you can go. And that’s an utter absolute binding affirmation. And here the Lord puts up both hands and swears by Him who lives forever. Who’s that? That’s God.

v. 7b        How long is the Antichrist reign of terror? How long is it going to be that the end of these wonders will exist? Three and a half years. That’s very explicit. It’s exactly what was said in chapter 7 verse 25, three and a half years.

v. 7c         What are those three and a half years to accomplish? It’s to utterly devastate the holy people. Who are they? Israel. They need to know that it’s not going to get better…it’s going to get far worse. There is coming a future world ruler. They’re going to put their faith in him, and Daniel 9 says they’re going to sign an allegiance with him for seven years. But in the middle of that seven years, at the beginning of the three and a half that end it, he is going to turn against them and he is going to devastate them and shatter them and dash them to pieces. He will bring such persecution as they have never conceived. He will bring a time of trouble like no other in the history of the world, it says in verse 1.

And you know what will come out of it? Instead of destroying the people of God, he will crush them to the point where they will be so broken and so lost and so devastated that they will look to their Messiah. And as Zechariah puts it, “they’ll look on Him whom they’ve pierced and mourn for Him as an only son.” And they will accept the Lord Jesus Christ as King and Messiah and Savior. They will be so crushed, they’ll have nowhere to go but to Christ.

Our Lord spoke of this.

Matthew 24:29-31

²⁹ Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: ³⁰ And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

This isn’t the rapture. That was 7 years previous. When He comes in utter judgment at the end of the tribulation, He gathers together some gloriously saved people. And that will include believing Israel. They’ll turn to their Messiah in the terrible destruction of the tribulation.