Today I am concluding my series on Daniel in Babylon, which I began last year in MSU. So, before I launch into Daniel 12, I’d like to review some of the great themes of this marvelous book and connect them with the chapters in which they were revealed. The overarching theme of the Book of Daniel in the absolute sovereignty of God over the destinies of nations, which will culminate in the coming of one like the Son of Man, the Messiah, to install an everlasting kingdom that will supersede all others. A subordinate theme is God’s Providence that refines and protects His people for their ultimate good.

It’s interesting that in the Hebrew Bible, Daniel is included in the sacred writings, called kethuvim, at the end of their Bible, rather than with the prophets, or nevihim. That may be because the first half of Daniel is more biographical than prophetic in content. In the first half of Daniel, the God of Israel demonstrates His superiority and sovereignty over the mightiest, pagan kingdom in the world; and in the latter half, God unfolds in visionary form the rise and fall of great empires and the sweep of history that reaches to the end of time. Daniel therefore is the Old Testament counterpart to the book of Revelation, and Revelation contains several parallels and allusions to Daniel.

Because of its detailed prophetic account of the tyrannical rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes from 175-164 BC, liberal interpreters ascribe the writing of Daniel to between 167-164 BC during the time of the Maccabean Revolt. Against this anti-supernatural bias, that denies the foreknowledge of God, we can point to prophecies in Daniel 9 and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible that clearly were written centuries before their fulfillment. The citation of Daniel and the three Hebrew children in 2 Maccabees ch.2 also affirms that these were revered Jewish leaders long before the Maccabean revolt.

Daniel was written in two languages: chapters 1, and 8-12 were written in Hebrew, while ch.2:4 through ch.7 were written in Aramaic, which was the common language of the Middle East for centuries. This suggests that Daniel wrote in Aramaic for people throughout the Empire to comprehend and the rest in Hebrew that was only intended for the remnant of Israel. This also protected Daniel from being accused of treason for prophesying the fall of Babylon and later Persia.

The first five chapters tell how Daniel had been taken captive, along with the vessels of Jerusalem’s Temple to Babylon, as a demonstration of the superiority of Babylon’s God to that of Yahweh; but the God of Israel ironically used Daniel and the temple vessels as His instrument to pronounce doom upon Babylon in 538 BC.

Daniel 2 unfolded over five centuries of history through Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the golden statue. The rest of Daniel amplifies this revelation by telling the story of Babylon’s downfall to the Medo-Persian Empire and then foretelling the rise and division of Alexander’s empire, to be followed by an unnamed and frightful empire which would kill Messiah the Prince, destroy Jerusalem and the holy temple a second time, and whose antitype successor would bring in a final desolation before the consummation.

In Daniel 7, Messiah is introduced to us as “one like a Son of Man” who is given an everlasting kingdom that encompasses all the peoples of earth. In Daniel 8, I believe Messiah commands Gabriel the herald angel to give Daniel the interpretation of the vision of Rams and Goats and of the insolent king. In Daniel 9, Gabriel explains the prophecy of the 70 sevens, where Messiah is “cut off” or killed after 483 years or 69 weeks. Finally, in Daniel 10, Messiah appears as the man dressed in linen who stands above the Tigris River. Messiah unfolds the longest, prophetic message in the Bible that continues through the end of Daniel.

Daniel 12 is a continuation of Daniel 11. If you recall, the latter half of Daniel 11 focuses on two insolent kings: Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who blasphemously named himself “God appears” and a Willful King who is an eviler antitype to Antiochus to that failed Seleucid tyrant. Daniel 11:36 says, “Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.” Daniel 11 ended with this tyrant’s final doom: “he will come to his end, and no one will help him.” Now, in ch.12:1 Messiah speaks again of Israel’s majestic Protector, Michael.

“Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.”

It is poignant that Michael, “the great prince” or archangel appears by name immediately before and after Daniel 11. Human tyrants exalt themselves in their fleshly mind, but next to this great prince they are as puny as ants, and their agenda is doomed from the outset.

Michael has been assigned to guard over the people of Israel, and as the commanding general of angelic forces has immense forces at his command. That Messiah the King twice named this mighty prince as bookends to this potent chapter suggests how frightful the struggle would be to protect God’s Chosen People from being annihilated under three increasingly debased empires: Persia, Greece and Rome. When Messiah says Michael “will arise”, I take it to mean that he will unleash devastating angelic power against Israel’s enemies and their hidden demonic backers and achieve decisive results that will preserve the Jewish people. His direct command of a mighty, angelic counteroffensive comes at “a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time.”

How should we interpret this? If the nation in view is only the people of Israel, then the preterist view that the destruction and scattering of the Jews after the Roman invasion of 70 AD would be a fitting interpretation. This certainly was as terrible a period of suffering as ever occurred to the Jewish people, since Jerusalem and its temple was destroyed; and the people were not only killed, but many of the remnant were sold off as slaves. Yet Jesus’ followers among the Jews fled before the Roman siege began, and thus were rescued from death and enslavement, as this verse declared.

Yet Jesus’ Olivet Discourse suggests a future fulfillment when He said: “²¹ For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. ²² Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short…. ²⁷ For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:21-22, 27). Jesus said this time of great tribulation will be unmatched by any time in history; so that would have to include the devastation wrought in World Wars I and II with over 70 million deaths. And He connected this Tribulation with His own coming, which implicitly connects Daniel 12 to the last of the 70 Weeks prophesied in Daniel 9.

That is certainly a frightening portent, and would fit a futurist application of much that is in the Book of Revelation. As we shall, Revelation has several, and at least one direct, references to Daniel 12.

I believe eschatology can have multiple fulfillments, because biblical prophecy is replete with historical types and future antitypes. The Jews suffered unprecedented religious persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes was; the devastation brought by the Roman legions from 66 to 70 AD was worse; the Nazi persecution was worse still, and there may be a future Antichrist tyrant who will be the worst in world history. Clearly, the means for such a future tyrant to bring military and economic wrath on other nations exists in the world, but the geopolitical context for that does not currently exist. If Satan is released to bring such a tyrant to power in the earth, which 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 suggests, he certainly will; because such tyrants cause more misery and death than rogue states or terrorist groups. So I will suspend judgment on how things will play out; but we must be ever vigilant.

Verse 2 links Daniel 12 with the very end of the age by referring to the resurrection of the dead, which occurs when Jesus returns. “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”

The resurrection of believers takes place, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, right before the Rapture of the Church: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

Messiah linked those “written in the Book” with everlasting life. In Revelation, Jesus also spoke about the Book of Life. There are seven references to this book in Revelation, and one in Philippians. The term “book” refers to a divine ledger of the lives and deeds of His saints. Revelation contrasts in ch.20 with “books” kept on unbelievers from the beginning of time, recording their sinful acts. Our book, I believe, will only include the righteous deeds of the saints, since our sins will be blotted out by the blood of Christ. Are you committed to adding acts of selfless love to the ledger of your life being recorded by God?

The “disgrace and everlasting contempt” or abhorrence of the wicked resurrected at the end of v. 2 alludes to what is written at the end of Isaiah: “Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched; and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.” The lost in hell will become an eternal byword not only to the redeemed in heaven, but to all other races of the universe to come, who will shudder at the thought of rebelling against God. No one will ever challenge God’s authority, and peace and harmony will prevail throughout the Creation. This is God’s eternal vision for the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Now the Lord explained the future of His saints in heaven: “³ Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” The verb “to have insight,” sākăl, means “to be prudent.” It is the same three-letter root, sākăl, of a verb meaning “to lay crosswise” or the noun, “a crossroad.” Sākăl means the ability to choose the right direction at the critical crossroads, of life where an imprudent decision can cost one their life. Proverbs 14:12 warns, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Sākăl implies means to discern and understand the signs of the times. This verb was used twice in Daniel 11:33, 35 to bolster the Jews in their defiance of Antiochus, and all God’s people under tyrants in their appointed time.

In v. 10, Messiah repeats His warning in ch.11 concerning the end time: “Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.” Messiah reiterates to Daniel that severe persecution will befall His people, “but those who have insight [sākăl] will understand.” Under every tyrant, some of God’s people are martyred, but the rest take courage and gain insight into God’s workings that end up strengthening His people overall. Every tyrant has his sycophantic followers who deny or compromise their faith by associating powerful rulers with the work of God.

Ironically, having insight, being prudent, to the things of God can be terribly perilous in a temporal sense – to “to be purged, purified and refined” through persecution – yet this only serves to heighten the eternal reward of shining like the brightness of the heavens in eternity. God sometimes subjects his saints to the extremity of loss to demonstrate to “the rulers and authorities in heavenly places” how greatly they prize serving God. Yet they are the ones God bestows the highest honors in heaven. So we must never judge others by temporal outcomes and outward appearances either of suffering or well-doing.

Messiah’s emphasis of insight comes in the context of confronting a diabolically evil ruler who magnifies Himself against God and murders those who fail to worship him. Such tyrants only succeed temporally with the aid of self-serving bureaucrats, and the blind devotion of people to such a ruler. Only those who have insight discern the deception and malice in the tyrant’s appeal and resist the tide of public conformity. The price of their resistance is death, but devotion to the Truth and to God makes that price bearable.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one 20^th century Christian leader who chose to resist perhaps the evilest tyrant who ever lived – Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Third Reich. Hitler was a historic antitype of Antiochus Epiphanes – “a despicable man… on whom the honor of kingship has not been conferred” – who erected a seamless tyranny over Germany and then unleashed a monstrous war for continental conquest. Like the willful king of Daniel 11, he honored “a god of fortresses.”

As soon as Hitler seized power, he set about to co-opt and neutralize the Evangelical and Catholic Churches into impotent and subservient religious societies. Listen to one German Evangelical Church pastor’s idolatrous sycophancy: “The time is fulfilled for the German people of Hitler. It is because of Hitler that Christ, God the helper and redeemer, has become effective among us. … Hitler is the way of the Spirit and the will of God for the German people to enter the Church of Christ.” Another pastor put it more succinctly: “Christ has come to us through Adolph Hitler.”

Against this idolatry, a few courageous ministers, including the theologian Karl Barth, the elder Martin Niemoller and 28-year old Dietrich Bonhoeffer signed the Barmen Declaration which declared its sole allegiance to Jesus Christ: “We repudiate the false teaching that the church can and must recognize yet other happenings and powers, personalities and truths as divine revelation alongside this one Word of God. … “ He helped organize the small Confessing Church as a prophetic voice against Nazi tyranny. But Bonhoeffer courageously went further than the others by returning to Germany from America to disciple the faithful in the Confessing Church. In 1944, he actively conspired to overthrow Hitler, recognizing how incorrigibly his Third Reich was. He was imprisoned after a failed assassination attempt against Hitler; and just before Nazi Germany collapsed, Hitler ordered his execution in April, 1945. Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom, however, only sealed his place as one of the greatest Christian heroes of the 20^th century. Bonhoeffer’s study on the Sermon on the Mount, The Cost of Discipleship, is still one of the most influential Christian works of the 20^th century.

Jesus quoted v. 3 in his explanation of the Parable of the Tares that contrasted those who have insight to those who deceive themselves when he said, “Just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, ⁴² and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

Continuing with vv.4: “But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.” Messiah states that the fulfillment of this revelation awaits the end of time, and then adds with heavenly understatement what is manifestly true in our age – people are travelling continually across the globe and scientific knowledge has vastly increased. Reading on in v. 5-6:

“Then I, Daniel, looked and behold, two others were standing, one on this bank of the river and the other on that bank of the river. ⁶ And one said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be until the end of these wonders?”

Notice the beautiful imagery of Messiah standing above the river. His position there, and its placement in this verse is symbolically significant. First, He is above everyone else – that is, He is higher than the angels around Him. Just as rivers are a continuous flow of water, Messiah is symbolically standing above and over the continuous flow of history as the Sovereign Lord of Providence. One might also think of the Lord of Life standing over a river which is the bearer of life-giving water, and also a type of the River of Life that flows out from the throne of God. All of this affirms the majesty and goodness of the One who spoke to Daniel, and whose voice roared like a rushing cascade.

Messiah answered the angel’s question: “I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time; and as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed.”

Messiah swore with both hands lifted in worship “by Him who lives forever” – what He spoke has been preordained by God and is unalterable. There will be a definite, appointed end to the suffering of God’s people on the earth and God will only allow a certain amount of tribulation before He crushes our enemies.

Messiah gave a two-part answer to then angel’s question. The tribulation will be for “a time, times, and half a time,” and once the “holy people” – i.e. the Jews – are shattered, the events will be completed, or finished. The phrase “time, times, and half a time” is a bit mysterious. Marginal notes in my Bibles say “i.e. 3½ years”, and the context supports this; but the original meanings of the word for “time” and in all three languages where this phrase appears in the Bible suggest more than this. The two other times this phrase appears are in Daniel 7:25, written in Aramaic, and Revelation 12:14, written in Greek.

In all three languages, the words used for “time” meaning an appointed or fixed time rather than a specific length of time. To my knowledge, these are the only verses in the Bible where words for appointed time are linked to a specific amount of sequential time, all around 3½ years. These times are brief, but intense, periods of suffering appointed by God to accomplish His providential purpose: the glorification of Himself through His saints. The phrase “time, times, and half a time” emphasizes that God is foreordaining every measure of suffering inflicted to magnify His ultimate deliverance and victory.

In Daniel 7:22 and 7:25 the Aramaic word for “time” is īddān, which has its ancient root meaning in a woman’s appointed “time” or period of menstruation, not a length of time. In Daniel 7:22 the saints possess the kingdom at their appointed time (īddān) but only after they are oppressed and murdered by “the little horn” tyrant for īddān: “time, times and half a time.” Daniel uses another Aramaic word for “times” in v. 7:25, zeman, where the little horn tries to alter “times” (epochs or periods of history) and law, such as changing BC and AD to before and after “MY birth.”

The Hebrew word for “time” and “times” in ch.12:7 is moed, and also means appointed or fixed time throughout the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew word for chronological time is éth; and the Hebrew word for year is shanah, from which we get the Jewish New Year festival, Rosh Hashanah, “the head of the year.” It is the context of this phrase to a specified number of days in vv.11-12 that uniquely adds the meaning “years” to what would normally mean “appointed time.”

The prophecy of 70 sevens in Daniel 9, which clearly means 490 years, supports this understanding, especially the reference in Daniel 9:27 to a 3 ½ year period – “the middle” or “half of” the week – where sacrifice and offering are ended.

The 2,300 evenings and mornings of Daniel 8:14, also refers to a definite season of tribulation under Antiochus Epiphanes, and a future Antichrist, as type and antitype of religious tyranny. (Historically, the period of the most violent persecution and murder of the Jews under the Nazis – Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938 to Germany’s surrender in 1945 – was just over 2300 days. Hitler can properly be viewed as a far eviler antitype to Antiochus.)

In Revelation 12:14, which also uses the phrase “time, times and half a time,” the word for time is kairos, or appointed time, not sequential time. But just like Daniel 12, kairos in v.14 has the added meaning of a specific length of time, because of its context. In Revelation 12:3-6, the evil antagonist is the “great red dragon,” who is Satan “the serpent of old,” who seeks to devour the Christ child; but his mother is “nourished” in the wilderness for 1,260 days, or 3½ years in the 360-day calendar year used in biblical times.

Once again, Scripture immediately introduces Michael the archangel, who wages war against the dragon and casts him and his angels out of heaven. And v.14 repeats that the woman – who symbolically represents the people of God – is “nourished” for “a time, times, and half a time.”

Immediately after chapter 12, Revelation introduces another Beast, who is the central Antichrist figure in the book, who draws his power from the dragon, or Satan. This again connects Revelation with Daniel 11, which describes the willful king who honors a god of “fortresses” and acts “with the help of a foreign god.”

So all three of these passages are thematically interconnected, which is why the passage of Daniel 11:36 through Daniel 12 is eschatological, and transcends the painful, prophesied oppression of the Jews under the Hellenistic kingdoms. In all three languages their connection of appointed time with a definite period of sequential time has the same purpose. God is assuring His people that there will be a definite end to their fearful tribulation.

Daniel was perplexed and overwhelmed by these things. Reading on from vv.8-9: “As for me, I heard but could not understand; so I said, “My lord, what will be the outcome [or final end] of these events?” ⁹ He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.

Daniel wanted to know how things would end, and Messiah repeats that His words “are concealed and sealed up until the end of time.” This implied that what he had just mentioned had to be unsealed at its appointed time before people would understand their specific historical context. Revelation 6 alludes to this in describing the breaking open of the seven seals that unleash a conquering tyrant, war, famine and death upon the earth. God is able to keep specific details hidden from us as to how things will turn out; and this is necessary for prophecy to be fulfilled the way He intends. God wants us to understand that He is going to banish evil and set things right when Christ returns; but He has hidden the sequence of events before that occurs.

Messiah then gave Daniel two specific benchmarks in vv.11-12: 11 From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. ¹² How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days! 13 But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.”

What is the meaning – literal or symbolic – behind these two numbers? Both are longer than the 1,260 days written in Revelation 12:6; they are both a bit longer than 3½ prophetic, or even solar, years. There will be 1,290 days He said from the time that the temple is desecrated with the abomination of desolation, alluded to in Daniel 9 and ascribed to Antiochus IV in Daniel 11:31. Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the temple in December 168 BC and died in May 164 BC, about 3½ years later; but remember that Jesus also warned of another abomination that causes desolation in his Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24 and Mark 13.

Those who hold a futurist interpretation connect these days to a 1,260-day Great Tribulation period already noted in Revelation, which includes a 30-day grace period for people to repent by the Day of Atonement to reach 1,290 days. To this one could add 45 days of rededication until 1335 days. The 1,335 days then refer to a joyous renewal of holy worship in Jerusalem at the end of the Great Tribulation period.

These days will become significant if we find ourselves in the kind of fearful tyranny that fits this end times scenario. What is significant for all time is that those who have insight into God’s ways and word will triumph in spite of being persecuted. And those who suffer most for the sake of the cross will have the highest honors in heaven. It is not our place to seek out suffering, but to live faithfully to God and the gospel. But we must be willing as Jesus said, to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him.

Daniel 12:3 is one of my life verses, because it promises that those who seek insight into God and His ways will shine brightly forever in God’s kingdom. Just as Messiah dazzled Daniel standing by the banks of the Tigris, and the Lord Jesus dazzled the Apostle John on the island of Patmos, we shall dazzle all other races across a living universe forever with our own measure of divine glory bestowed graciously to us through God’s Holy Spirit who indwells us. 1 John 3:2-3 assures us: “² Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. ³ And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

Have you fully committed yourself to Jesus, and Him alone, for your salvation from the idolatry of this world and from the punishment of hell in the hereafter? If you have not fully dedicated your life to him, I urge you to do so now. Let us pray.