Daniel 12:11-13 - Blessed is the one who waits

12:11,12

We have another three and a half years/time, times and half a time thing here. This time we are told there will be 1290 days after “abomination that causes desolation is set up”. Then “blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1335 days”. We can take this to mean there will be a significantly long period of rising evil, it will seem too much to bear. But the end is then near, and the one who holds on for a little longer will be blessed. I believe that the prime messages of the apocalyptic sections of Daniel, and of Revelation itself, is to encourage us to hold on in the most difficult times. There is no promise of an easy road, rather a very difficult one, but our final victory is assured.

12:13

These things will not happen in Daniel’s time, neither the partial fulfillments, nor the final end. By the way, if we follow those who maintain that the book was written in the second century BC, this last chapter would seem to mean that the book is essentially dishonest, which it is not. Daniel will rest, i.e. he will die, then be raised at “the end of days” to receive his “allotted inheritance”. So how does the first half fit with the second half? The actions of Daniel and his friends demonstrate to us how we are to live in the midst of an evil kingdom. Daniel maintained his integrity, his faithfulness to the Lord. He also respected human rulers. They faced great dangers, but also experienced help from the Lord. Daniel’s life is an example that we need to follow.

Daniel 12:8-10 - Go your way, Daniel

12:8,9

Daniel did not understand what the answer meant, and so he asked for clarification. He did not receive any! At least not in the form he expected or in the way that we would like. He is simply told to “go your way”, because the word is “sealed until the end of time”. The meaning would only become apparent when relevant events started happening. If we look at the life of Jesus as recorded in the gospels we can see how so much of Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled, yet before Jesus actually came no one would have predicted what would happen. Shortly before the ascension Jesus had been speaking to His disciples and they asked “at this time are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Jesus told them it was not for them to know, but that they are to get on with preaching the gospel (Acts 1:7,8). With events of the end it is futile to be trying to work out the when. When these events begin to occur, or partial fulfillments of them, then the meaning and relevance of Daniel’s words will start to become apparent. In the meantime we are to get on with trusting and obeying God today.

12:10

There is not simple outcome. Not everyone will be saved, nor will everyone go to hell. “Many will be purified, made spotless and refined”. “But the wicked will continue to be wicked”.  The wicked will not understand, but the wise will. Many will be saved, but many will not. It is not for us to know the exact “split”. It is for us to get on with the task that God has given to us to do.

Daniel 12:5-7 - How long will it be?

12:5,6

The main vision is over and we now have the epilogue. Daniel sees two others, one on either side of the bank. Somewhat surprisingly, it is one of these two men, rather than Daniel, who asks the question, “how long before these astonishing things are fulfilled?”.

12:7

The man “clothed in linen” says it will be “time, times and half a time”. This phrase has occurred before in Daniel, and occurs in Revelation. The lifting of his hands towards heaven signifies the solemness of what he is saying. He then adds “when the power of the holy people has finally been broken, all these things will be completed”. There are those who try to tie this into historical events. This seems to me to be a futile exercise. A lot of the stuff Daniel has seen in earlier chapters is clearly related to historical events, in particular Antiochus Epiphanes. However, Epiphanes did not break the power of the Jews. The Maccabees were rather successful in their resistance. This would indicate that we are looking at events far in the future.

Daniel 12:3,4 - Those who are wise will shine

12:3

There will be very difficult times, but this is no reason for despair, nor for hiding in a hole. “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens”, this reminds us of Phil 2:15. And there will be those “who lead many to righteousness”. We need to have a clear Biblical understanding of difficult times that will arise, and our role to live as Christ’s disciples in the midst of those times. We are on the side that wins! As Rev 13:10 says, “this calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people”.

12:4

Daniel is then told to roll up the scroll and seal it until the time of the end. This is a clear indication that the message related to a time far ahead. It does not mean that the word was physically sealed, for the words were contained in the Hebrew Scriptures, and Jesus and John clearly knew about them! The sealing up means that the meaning and relevance would not be appreciated until the time of the end (and this does not necessarily just mean the very end, but the frequent very difficult times that Israel and parts of the church have often endured). Many would look in all sorts of places for knowledge, but the word of God is the only place that true knowledge is to be found.

Daniel 12:1,2 - There will be a time of distress

12:1

We now come to the final chapter. The angel Michael is mentioned again. There are things going on in the heavenly realms that we do not know about. We need to have the right attitude to this. We should not forget that there are angelic forces at work on our behalf, but at the same time we should not get obsessed about them. “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time.” “But at that time your people shall be delivered.” We need to be aware of both these facts, the time of tribulation, and the certainty of deliverance. Deliverance does not mean an easy time of it, nor being raptured out of trouble. “Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.” There are obvious parallels with Revelation. There we have a time of great tribulation, we have the salvation of God’s people, and we have the Book of Life.

12:2

This verse is perhaps the clearest talk of resurrection in the Old Testament. NIV has “Multitudes of those who sleep in the dust”, ESV has “Many of those who sleep in the dust”. The Hebrew word is actually “many”, but it serves a rather different meaning than our English word, and “multitudes” is probably a better translation. All people will be raised, including unbelievers, but what we are raised to depends on our faith, or lack of, in Christ. Those who believe will be raised to eternal life, but others to “shame and everlasting contempt”.

Daniel 11:37-45 - Yet he will come to his end

11:37-39

This ruler will be very different from the previous ones. All the failings and sins of the previous rulers will be magnified a hundred times over in this ruler, they will reach their natural conclusion in him. Many of the characteristics can be found in Antiochus, who history shows was an extremely proud ruler, but he is not a perfect fulfilment, and it seems much better to take this as also pointing forward. My view on these things is that there is a temporal partial fulfillment that demonstrates the validity of God’s word, but there is a general fulfillment in that it explains how evil works in the world, and there will be an ultimate fulfillment in the very last days. We see a similar pattern in Revelation.

11:40-45

The reach of this ruler will be vast. The king of the south (Egypt) will seek to oppose him, but the ruler of the North will conquer many lands. There will be various battles and dangers, and he will occupy the “Beautiful Land” (Israel). “Yet he will come to his end, and no-one will help him”. This is the fate of all rulers. It happened to Hitler, we read of similar things in Revelation. We need to accept that life will not follow a simple path, and there will be much trouble, but the Lord is God and He is in control.

Daniel 11:33-36 - The king will do as he pleases

11:33-35

Verse 33 is quite an amazing verse really. It is a verse for mature Christians, not airy-fairy ones! We are called to be wise and to instruct other Christians. The command is consistent with 2 Tim 4:5: “But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” We are also told that some will “fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered”. The reference to “many who are not sincere” joining them might be referring to the Maccabean revolt when many insincere joined them when it was succeeding. While there are temporal references in all this, and temporal fulfilments, verse 35 points us to the ultimate end. Part of the purpose of the persecution is to refine, to make pure and spotless.

11:36

Having spent some time on the effect on the role of God’s people, we now return to the godless rulers. We have the picture of a king who does as he pleases, is utterly consumed by pride. He exalts and magnifies himself above “every god” and will blaspheme the Lord. There are echoes of this in Rev 13:5,6. He will be successful, but only for a time. Terrible things will happen, but they are all under God’s control, and fulfilling His purposes. And part of that purpose is the exercise of s wrath, His righteous judgement on man’s sin.

Daniel 11:29-32 - With flattery he will corrupt

11:29,30

The ruler of the north will venture out again to invade the South. This time his power will have waned and he will be opposed by ships and the battle will become so difficult that he will lose heart. This was Antiochus’s second campaign and marked a significant waning in his power, and Rome would be able to take advantage of this. NIV has “ships of the western coastlands” while ESV has “ships of Kittim”. Kittim was the ancient name for Cyprus, and came to represent other islands and coastlands of Palestine. Humiliated tyrants do not take defeat easily but vent their anger on others. In this case it would be taken out on the “holy covenant”. Not all in Israel would remain faithful to the covenant, but would forsake it and receive favour from Antiochus. Matt 24:12,13 warns of a similar response on the part of some.

11:31,32

“The abomination that causes desolation” is a topic of much debate, and is referred to in Matt 24:15. The temple had been fortified, but would be invaded by Antiochus and profaned. He would institute worship of false gods within the temple. There will be a division within God’s people. Some will be deceived and corrupted by flattery. However, those “who know their God” will firmly resist him. This is a pattern that we see again and again. In our own day there are many within the church who love to go along with the world in its immorality and stupidity. When we see this happen we should not be alarmed, but should remain faithful to the Lord and to resist all evil.

Daniel 11:21-28 - He will act deceitfully

11:21-24

A new ruler would now arise, one who was more evil than the previous ones (who were no paragons of virtue!). He is described as being “a contemptible person”. He was not honoured with any royal title and ruled by intrigue, This person is generally taken to be Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163 BC). Previously Israel and Judah had been conquered and sent into exile as an act of God’s judgement upon them for their persistent disobedience. Now they would be suffering persecution. Maybe we can see a parallel here with the Christian life. We are saved when we repent and believe. We need to acknowledge our sins and our sinfulness, and may have suffered much because of our sins. When we are saved there is much restoration, but life does not become easy, and we may suffer persecution.

The contemptible ruler made agreements with religious leaders. He flattered the people, making promises to them. This is a pattern that has oft been repeated in history. This leader will have absolutely no regard for the agreements he has made, abandoning them whenever it seemed convenient to do so. All this would seem to succeed, but only for a time. Again, we can see this pattern in politics time after time.

11:25-28

Egypt will wage war against Epiphanes, but the various intrigues of Epiphanes will have undermined Egypt and Egypt will not succeed. There would be division within the Egyptian rulers. People would lie to each other. For a similar situation in modern times one can think of Hitler and Stalin. For a time they had an alliance, only for Hitler to then launch an invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa), which did not end well for Hitler. There is the same pattern of lies, deceit and selfish ambition. The king of the North then returns to his own land. However, “his heart will be set against the holy covenant”. He profaned the temple, and slaughtered many of the Jews. It is noteworthy that it does not merely say he attacked Israel, but that he worked against the “holy covenant”. He is attacking God Himself. Jesus warned us that they will hate us because they hate Him (John 15:18).

Daniel 11:17-20 - He will fall to be seen no more

11:17-19

Having conquered significant areas between the north and the south, the king of the north will make an alliance with the south. He will also seek to subjugate the south by giving the king of the south one of his daughters in marriage. The use of marriage as a diplomatic tool was common in Europe at one time. The goal of the king of the North will be to overthrow the south, but this goal will not be achieved. Having failed in this venture he will turn his attention to various lands on the coast of the Mediterranean, but these too will be thwarted by another “commander” (indicating that another empire will arise). He will finally retreat to his own country, but will eventually fall to be seen no more.

11:20

Kingdoms in decline always encounter severe financial problems. They have overreached themselves and based their plans on an assumption of ever increasing success. Our own governments do the same with their economic policies, and these always come to a sticky end. So the successor of the king will send out tax collectors to try and maintain the kingdom. But this will also end in failure.

Daniel 11:14-16 - The invader will do as he pleases

11:14

So far we have just had an outline of historical events. This continues, but in this verse we have mention of the reaction of some of the Jews. With the events described in this chapter to a large extent it seems that Israel is just caught in the middle, they are a victim of events. There will be a general revolt against the South (Egypt). Some violent Jews will rebel “in fulfilment of the vision”. It isn’t clear what this means. It could be that they were seeking to fulfil the promises about Israel through their own strength. This is something that has happened at various points in Israel’s history, and is something that occurs in the church as well. “But without success”. Trying to fulfill God’s promises by our own strength is never a good idea. Abraham and Sarah discovered this back in Genesis 16. 

11:15,16

The North will then have success against the South, building up siege ramps to capture “a fortified city” (possibly Sidon). The South will try to resist this but will be unable to. So here the invader will be successful and seem to be able to do what he wants. This will involve establishing himself in the “beautiful land”, that is Israel.

Why is God telling Daniel all this? Why is He telling us all this? Israel, like most of us, expected and wanted God’s plans to be fulfilled in a nice linear fashion, with minimal suffering for them. This is not the way His plans are fulfilled! The path would be very difficult, but God is showing that He is in control of events, and He knows exactly what is going on, and what He is doing. So in our own circumstances, whether we are talking about very personal things, or the national and international events that go on in our lifetimes, we can be confident that God knows what He is doing!

Daniel 11:7-13 - He will advance with a huge army

11:7-10

We get more on the ongoing conflict between the south and the north. It makes it explicit that “south” refers to Egypt. There are times of conflict, then times of relative peace, or at least the absence of war. In v 10 this culminates in a large scale conflict. The various battles and intrigues of this chapter involved the Ptolemies of Egypt (the South) and the Seleucids (the North).

11:11-13

The attempted massive attack from the North will be countered by an attack by the South. The North will try to resist this but will fail. The king of the South will be full of himself at this victory. He will then slaughter many thousands, but will not achieve ultimate victory. The North will muster an even greater army, this will be some several years later. This will be  a huge army, and a well equipped one.

Daniel 11:3-6 - His empire will be broken up

11:3,4

After this a mighty king will arise. This king is not named here, but is taken to be Alexander the Great. He conquered a vast area of territory. So he did “rule with great power” and he did as he pleased. He was very powerful, and very proud. One of the recurring lessons of Daniel is that “pride comes before a fall” (Prov 16:18), and this happened to Alexander the Great. Instead of his kingdom passing on to his descendants, it was “parcelled out to the four winds”. And the parcelled out kingdom did not have anything like the power of the former kingdom.

11:5,6

We now get more details of what will happen after the “parcelling out”. The terms North and South here should be understood within the context of the time. So the South refers to Egypt, the southernmost limits of the Persian, Greek and Roman empires. There is intrigue between the north and the south, with various rulers and commanders vying for supremacy. Why are we being told all this? It is because Israel would be caught in the crossfire. She would be affected by conflict between other nations.

Daniel 11:1,2 - He will stir up everyone

11:1

This verse follows on from the end of chapter 10 and refers to the year when the captives were given orders to return to Jerusalem. The decision was made by the earthly ruler, Darius or Cyrus (see earlier discussion), but angelic forces also played their part. What goes on in the spiritual and physical realms are linked. It is not all spiritual, and it is not all earthly. Both matter.

What follows is quite unique in the detail of the prophecies. This is quite unlike most of the material we find in the other prophets. It is also very different from Revelation. While Revelation and Daniel bear a number of important similarities, and are dealing with similar matters in part, Revelation does not give specific details in the way that Daniel does. This should be borne in mind when interpreting Revelation, and would indicate that trying to be too specific in Revelation is a mistake.

11:2

After Cyrus, the Medo-Persian kings were Cambyses (530-522 BC), Smerdis (522 BC), Darius I (521-486 BC) and Xerxes (known as Ahasuerus in Esther, 485-465 BC). Xerxes was the one who was far richer than the previous ones, and he waged war against Greece.

Daniel 10:18-21 - The Book of Truth

10:18,19

The man touches Daniel again, and this gave him strength. He is then told not to be afraid, and told yet again that he is highly esteemed. He was told to be at peace and to be strong. Daniel was strengthened and then asked the messenger to speak to him. The proper state for man is to be in the presence of God, to hear from God and to do God’s work. Now sin put an end to all this, and resulted in our being in the state that we find ourselves in, and that Daniel found himself in. But the work of Christ is to restore us to the state we are meant to be in, which is living in fellowship with God.

10:20,21

The man (angel) let’s Daniel know why he has come to Daniel. In the next two chapters we will get the message itself. He would fight first against Persia, then against Greece. At the time Persia had power over God’s people, later Greece would hold that power. This messenger would be helped by Michael, “your prince”. There are angels who fight on our behalf. We should also note that all this is happening in response to Daniel’s prayer, and the key element of that prayer was repentance from sin. We need to be aware of the spiritual nature of the conflict we are in, and that sin is our biggest problem.

Daniel 10:15-17 - My strength is gone

10:15-17

In many ways this chapter is about the travail that was involved in Daniel receiving this message. The message was going to be so awesome and terrible, that the people reading the prophecy needed to know something of the background, and that Daniel was not just giving a random message, or something that he had made up and didn’t really care about. Daniel was on the ground again and unable to speak. The man touched him and Daniel then began to speak. He was without strength and breathless. 

Now this raises an interesting question. If someone goes into great detail about what they have seen and heard, before giving the message, then I become suspicious of the message! And such a view is not without Biblical support (Col 2:18,19). Yet here we have a whole chapter essentially devoted to Daniel’s feelings and experiences, and this is part of the word of God. Perhaps it is just a warning not to automatically write off anyone who does describe “spiritual experiences”.

Daniel 10:13,14 - The prince of Persia resisted me

10:13,14

These two verses are rather strange, giving a picture of conflict in the “spiritual realms” (see Ephesians). They can lead to rather suspect teaching on “territorial spirits” or the like. Now what are we to learn from this? One thing is that there are things going on in the spiritual realms that we are not aware of. Another thing is that it is Daniel’s “normal” prayers that were effective. He was not praying against any territorial spirit or power, rather he was confessing his own sins and the sins of the nation. So what are we to make of Eph 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”? We are to pray like Daniel, and we do so knowing that we are part of a spiritual conflict. Ephesians tells us how to fight this battle with the full armour of God. The “territorial spirits” stuff can lead to very bad teaching, and distract us from the battle that we are meant to be fighting. We are indeed part of a spiritual conflict, but we are to play our part in the way that God has instructed.

Daniel 10:7-12 - You are highly esteemed

10:7-9

Daniel seems to have been with some other people. The others were aware that something was going on and were overwhelmed with terror, but Daniel was the only one who saw the vision. Indeed, the others were so overwhelmed that they fled. Daniel himself was drained of all strength, and his face turned deadly pale. The messenger spoke, and this sent Daniel into a deep sleep. This was quite some experience for Daniel.

10:10-12

Here we see Daniel being strengthened by God. The prophets were never mere messengers, rather they were chosen by God and involved in a personal relationship with Him. Jeremiah is an excellent example of this. Once again we are told that Daniel is “highly esteemed” (NIV) or “greatly loved” (ESV). NIV actually catches the sense better here. Daniel is told to stand up. The servant of God is to deliver the message with confidence. Not with pride, but with confidence in the Lord from whom the message comes. Daniel is told to not be afraid. Daniel’s words, his prayers, were heard in heaven. Why? He humbled himself and set his mind to gain understanding. Our attitudes and actions matter. 

Daniel 10:1-6 - I mourned for three weeka

10:1

Chapters 10-12 are all of a piece and this chapter introduces the vision without giving any of the content. “In the third year of Cyrus the king of Persia”. This was 537 BC and the first group of exiles had returned to Jerusalem. This vision is linked back to the introduction of the book with the mention of Daniel being called Belteshazzar. Daniel would be an old man by this time, having lived many years in exile. We are assured that the message Daniel receives is true. NIV has “it concerned a great war”, ESV has “it was a great conflict”. So it isn’t clear whether it is saying Daniel found the message very hard to take, or that the message is about a great conflict. Both are true, so it doesn’t matter that much, and both NIV and ESV give the alternative reading as a footnote. Daniel was given understanding of the message through a vision.

10:2,3

That the message caused Daniel great trouble is shown by the fact that he was in mourning for three weeks. Daniel also reverted to the “Daniel fast” of chapter 1, not allowing any delicacies or wine etc to pass his lips. This does imply that he did not keep to the “Daniel fast” for the whole of his time in Babylon. This fasting lasted for three weeks.

10:4-6

The twenty-fourth day of the first month may have had some significance, but if it did we do not know what it was. The Euphrates and the Tigris were great rivers. Daniel saw “a man”, literally this is “a certain man”. Throughout the vision it is made clear that the messenger is a man. Priests wore linen garments, and these were usually white. He was wearing a belt of fine gold. The description here, especially in v6, bears some resemblance to Rev 1:12-16.

Daniel 9:26,27 - Until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator

9:26

NIV has “the Anointed One” shall be put to death, ESV has “an anointed one”. The ESV is a better translation here, with the NIV translation involving a significant amount of interpretation. There is a desire to put concrete interpretations on the prophecy here. Some see Antiochus Ephiphanes fulfilling this. Now he was a nasty piece of work and caused much desolation, but he did not destroy the temple nor the city. Others can see the “Anointed One” as Jesus with the cross being the death referred to, and the destruction of the temple by Rome in AD 70 fulfilling the other parts. This seems to me to be the more likely of the two, with the “war will continue to the end” referring to general conflict and opposition to the gospel. “Desolations have been decreed”. We could take this, along with the war part, as equating to Jesus saying there would be “wars and rumours of wars” (Matt 24:6). That is, there will be a general state of conflict until the very end.

9:27

In this verse we can see close parallels with Revelation. The final evil ruler will be different from those who came before him, and all the  world will bow down to him. There will also be desolation of the temple with sacrifice and offering coming to an end. The commentary by Baldwin sees this as signifying that God’s people will not have to endure intense suffering for the whole period. I must admit I cannot see this in the text. I think it is rather a sign of how intense things will get. 

“Until the end that is decreed is poured out on him”. So, as always, we see a time of intense evil, with evil seeming to reign, but the ultimate outcome is the destruction of the evil one.