I heard but I did not understand (12:8) - the final vision of Daniel.
- Mike Flynn (Vicar)
The wise know there are limits to their wisdom. They know that some things are meant for us in our daily lives while other things are beyond us, kept from us, outside our sphere of responsibility.
The final vision given to Daniel begins in Chapter 10. It is an objective experience, rather than a dream, at the edge of the Tigris river (10:4-7). The content of this vision is what will happen to God’s people in the days after Daniel. In the days since the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel and the trickle back return from exile that begun under Darius (10:1).
Chapter 11 leads us through hundreds of years of the history of the empires around Judea. The focus here is on the Seleucid (Northern Kingdom) and Ptolemaic (Southern or Egyptian Kingdoms) that are two of the remnant Kingdoms that came out of the four way division of Alexander the Great’s empire. These two warring fractions laid competing claims to Judea until the Roman empire conquered them.
Chapter 11 leads us through hundreds of years of the history of the empires around Judea. The focus here is on the Seleucid (Northern Kingdom) and Ptolemaic (Southern or Egyptian Kingdoms) that are two of the remnant Kingdoms that came out of the four way division of Alexander the Great’s empire. These two warring fractions laid competing claims to Judea until the Roman empire conquered them.
The focus of the vision in chapter 11 falls upon the ‘contemptible person’ who claims the Royal throne of the Northern Kingdom even though he had no right to it. His story runs from 11:21 to 31. We know him as Antiochus IV, who we first met, at least in any recognisable detail, in chapter 8.
From 11:33 to 35 we have a note from the man of heaven about the importance of being wise, that is, of being committed to the Lord God, even though the days after Daniel will see times when many of the wise will be killed or stumble in their commitment to God.
After this literary break we have a description of a King (King, being the name of a human ruler in this final vision. Prince is the name of a spiritual ruler; thus, 10:20, 11:1 and 12:1) who will arise from the area of the Northern Kingdom and sweep through the beautiful land (Judea) to conquer from modern day Iran/Iraq through Palestine, the Sinai peninsula and most of Northern and North Eastern Africa. We know that this is was not Antiochus IV but is a ruler who is the precursor to the final days of history that begin in 12:1.
After this literary break we have a description of a King (King, being the name of a human ruler in this final vision. Prince is the name of a spiritual ruler; thus, 10:20, 11:1 and 12:1) who will arise from the area of the Northern Kingdom and sweep through the beautiful land (Judea) to conquer from modern day Iran/Iraq through Palestine, the Sinai peninsula and most of Northern and North Eastern Africa. We know that this is was not Antiochus IV but is a ruler who is the precursor to the final days of history that begin in 12:1.
Michael, the (spiritual) prince of God’s people, will arise as open warfare is declared upon the people of God and it will be time of distress that has not been known since the beginning of nations in Genesis 11. Jesus, quotes this part of Daniel as he conflates this time of the end with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans (Mark 13, Matthew 24). He describes the terrors of the last days by citing the forthcoming Roman destruction of Jerusalem as a foretaste of those final times. Likewise he uses the desolation of the temple by Antiochus IV as a foretaste of the Roman destruction (Mark 13:14). The desolation of the temple by Anitochus is also a template, a shadow, a foretaste of the final warfare against God’s people in Daniel 12
(12:7, 11, 12 - Antiochus ended daily sacrifice between 167 and 164 BC for approximately three and a half years or, time [1 year], times [2 years] and half a time [6 months]).
(12:7, 11, 12 - Antiochus ended daily sacrifice between 167 and 164 BC for approximately three and a half years or, time [1 year], times [2 years] and half a time [6 months]).
During this final time of great distress (12:1) the power of God’s people will be finally broken (12:7) - or to put that another way open international warfare will be declared against all the things of God. There will be no civil or religious tolerance for Christianity or Hebrew religion. However, the time of this distress will be limited in the same way the distress in the time of Antiochus and Rome was limited (12:5-7, Matthew 24:21,22).
Our interpretive antennae get confused by how passages like Daniel 12, Matthew 24 and Mark 13 conflate images from different periods to refer to future events. Once we understand that Jesus, in the gospels, the man of heaven in Daniel, is looking at theological themes and types of beastly powers throughout history it gets easier to discern that while history does not repeat itself, from God’s point of view it often rhymes. We have seen the anti-Christ in Antiochus IV, we see him at certain times in the Roman empire, especially around the destruction of the temple, we’ve seen evidence of him in the centuries since and too frequently in the 20th century (1 John 2:18). Of course, though he has cast his terrifying shadows upon history, we still await the final revealing of the man of lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2) - the mysterious King who rages well beyond the abilities of Antiochus IV in the closing verses of Daniel 11.
At the end we know that the anti-God powers, the subhuman beasts that rule this world (Daniel 7), will be defeated. After the great distress in Daniel 12:1 comes the resurrection and the judging of the living and the dead (12:2,3). Those who have been wise enough to persist in following God and his ways, even through the great distress of the final days, will shine while others will only rise to shame.
Theology of Daniel.
There are two themes that run through Daniel. One is that, since the exile and the end of the Old Covenant of Moses, God’s people are rescued through their trials not from them. This is true in the first half of the book (chapters 1-6) where Daniel and his friends were in fear of their lives and, despite their great wisdom, could have died for their loyalty to God except for God rescuing them in the middle of trouble.
This theme is also true for the second half of Daniel (chapters 8-12) where we have described God’s people, despite their wisdom, suffering and often dying for their loyalty to God. They are finally rescued and vindicated in the resurrection of the dead in chapter 12. They are rescued through the days of trouble, not from them.
The other theme is that the powers set against God will be used by God to achieve his purposes. Even the fierce opposition to God’s people seen in Antiochus IV and all he foreshadows is used in Daniel 12 to purify and refine the people of God. On the ground we may see defeat. In heaven God sees his people being made spotless by persistent courage and faith that he responds to.
What strikes me about these themes is how they contain the shape of the cross of Jesus. Jesus told us we would be in the world and not of the world, that we are to take up our cross and follow him because Jesus was not rescued from trouble, but through it. More, he won our rescue by going through our deepest trouble - our sin, our alienation from God. Likewise, the powers of evil sought to destroy Jesus. The worst human beings could be in political cowardice, judicial corruption, execution by torture - all designed to belittle and destroy God in Christ Jesus, became the source of our salvation and the source of the final defeat of evil. The end of sin and the death of death. It was from the cross, not a throne, that Jesus declared: “It is finished.”
Sealed.
Daniel seems to understand the vision well enough but wants to know what the outcome of all this struggle, this spiritual and physical warfare will be. The answer he gets is the application for us of the passage. He is told to go his way because the outcome is sealed until the time of the end. To put that another way, the details, the dates, the personalities, the circumstances are not for us to know. What is for us is that the troubled times of the last days will refine God’s people (12:10) who will come from all over - not just from within Israel (12:4), that the time of the final great distress will be limited (12:11) and that the people of God will win as they always have, by grace (12:3,4).
As for us, we, like Daniel and his friends, are to go our way and do the good God has given us to do with the lives, gifts, circumstances, times, opportunities and challenges he has placed before us. We are to be wise enough to know how to serve where we are and wise enough to recognise the limitations of our knowledge and power. Wise enough to depend upon the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Somethings belong to God alone. Somethings are sealed. But as for you, woman or man of God... serve the true King in these difficult days and with the wise you will rise to receive your inheritance at the end. Amen.
Somethings belong to God alone. Somethings are sealed. But as for you, woman or man of God... serve the true King in these difficult days and with the wise you will rise to receive your inheritance at the end. Amen.
