Bible Commentaries
Daniel 12

Verses 1-13

1. Intro: Life is not a Rehearsal
   1. Life is not a Rehearsal...because the camera’s are always rolling.
      1. This is not a practice or trial performance. This is it. Life is the real thing. Life is a play...direct it. [unless you bel in reincarnation, ha!]
   2. Vs.1-4 wraps up the vision that the angel of chapter 10 started interpreting in 11:2.
      1. During the Antichrist’s last 3 ½ years of reign of terror (Great Trib) Michael helps out the sons of Israel & ushers them into the millennium.
   3. The angels Prophecies ends w/a beacon of Hope.
      1. The Apocalypse fades and Deliverance shines bright & strong.
      2. Like being buried alive in a cave. You wait to be found. Finally a faint sound, it sounds like a shovel, finally a tiny ray of light, then all of a sudden light comes pouring in, your rescuers have arrived.
      3. The angel has slowly uncovered the veil of the future. So far its looked dark & dismal, then finally ripped away & Hope shines through. God’s Delivering hand
2. The End of the Prophecy (1-4) [& then, The End of the Tribulation]
   1. (1a) The Great trib - read Mt.24:15-21
   2. (1b) Delivered – out of the Trib & into the mill.
   3. Slide10a Written in the book – Book of life. God has recorded the names of everyone He has redeemed since time began.
      1. Slide10b Who is not in the book – Rev.13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him (antichrist), whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
      2. Who is in the book – Phil. 4:3 And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
         1. Do you know if your name is in that book? [Yes to Jesus places your name there]
   4. (2,3) The Resurrections
   5. There are 2 Resurrections in scripture: one the resurrection to everlasting life, the other, the resurrection to everlasting condemnation.
      1. 3 facts of life: Everybody Dies. Everybody gets Evaluated. Everybody gets Resurrection.
      2. The O.T. spoke of a general Resurrection [like Job 19, 1st book]
      3. The N.T. further clarifies that it is at 2 different times. Rev.20:4-6,13.
         1. 1st Res - for the Righteous at the beg of Millennium.
         2. 2nd Res - for the un-righteous at the end of Millennium.
      4. Jn.5:28,29 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice & come forth - those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, & those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
   6. 1 Cor.15:22-25 Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
      1. ​​​​​​​So Christ rose 1st. Next, His Church…those who sleep in Jesus (Rapture/start of Trib - those who are dead in Christ shall rise 1st, then we who are alive & remain will be caught up w/them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air) [The church was not in the first 69 weeks of Daniel, they certainly won't be in the 70th week of Daniel or that tribulation period] Next, The Trib. Saints & the O.T. Believers, at the end of Trib/ beg of mill. Next, All Unbelievers – Rev.20:13.
   7. (3) Jesus quotes this in Mt.13:43 (parable wheat/tares) Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
   8. (3) There may be 2 groups here?
      1. The wise (teachers in Trib) & Those who witness/turn many to rt (evangelists in Trib).
         1. God sees His sons & daughters like stars in the night, beaming forth as little treasures of the skies. [like our Jr & HS retreat up in Green Valley experienced Meteor shower]
   9. (4) Shut up & seal – Gleason Archer (Swindoll pg.143,144)
      1. In the Ancient Near East, important documents such as contracts, promissory notes, and deeds of conveyance were written out in duplicate. The original document was kept in a secure repository (shut up/closed up/concealed), safe from latter tampering…Though copies might be made from it, the original was to remain secure so that it might be consulted if any future challenge of its terms were made.
      2. The practice of sealing was likewise derived from Near Eastern usage…First of all came the seal of the recording scribe himself, who in this case was Daniel, and then the seals of the various witnesses heard the exact words as they were dictated to the scribe. Once the document was thus sealed, it became the official and unchangeable text...Daniel, then, was to certify by his personal seal, as it were, to the faithfulness of the foregoing text as exact transcript of what God had communicated to him through his angel. Thus the record would be preserved unaltered down to the day when all the predictions would be fulfilled. (Gleason Archer, Daniel, pg.153,54.)
   10. The phrase many shall run to & fro & knowledge shall increase means???
   11. Some say this verse refers to general knowledge in the end times.
       1. Remember the volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica. Then, on CD Rom. Now you can download from the cloud, even to your phone.
       2. Someone once noted that from the time Christ died to the year 1700, knowledge on earth doubled. It took 1700 years for all of the previously accumulated knowledge to double on earth. In the year 1900 it doubled again, only 200 years later. In the year 1950 it doubled again, only 50 years later. In the year 1970 it doubled again, only 20 years later. Today information doubles every 2 years. Prognosticators are pointing to a day very soon when knowledge on earth will double every single day.
       3. However, the context of verse 4 is the time of the end. The great tribulation period. At the end of time, people will be going to and fro looking for the answer to why all these things are happening?
          1. Leon Wood writes, "Many shall run to and fro in their desire for knowledge of the last things & finding it in Daniel's book because it will have been preserved to this end, their knowledge shall increase." [Go back, its about Dan shutting up & sealing these words]
3. The End of the Tribulation (5-13)
   1. ​​​​​​​(5) Back to the beginning of the vision (10:4) to the banks of the Tigris.
   2. A few new players: 2 new angels. And a man dressed in linen (possibly the Lord)
   3. 2 questions are asked:
      1. (6) Angel asks about the Timing of this. [answered in vs.7,11,12]
         1. It is also answered with an oath of swearing. Not only with one hand but both, doubly affirming his oath (verily, verily).
         2. The timing = 3 ½ years, the Great Trib.
            1. 360 days in a year(Jewish calendar) x’s 3 ½ years = 1260 days.
               1. 360+360+360+180 = 1260 [More timing later in vs.11,12]
      2. (8) Daniel asks about the Results of this. [answered in vs. 9,10]
      3. Now, if an angel had questions about end times & Daniel had questions, I guess it’s ok you & I still have questions :) [beware those who have no questions!]
      4. (read 10 note: purified/white/refined/understand) Before Kel & I had wooden flooring put installed we had white linoleum on our kitchen floor. If you cleaned up a spill, the cleaner you got it, the more the dirt stood out on the rest. :(
         1. The more you shine in your business/job, on your street, in your school...The darker the world notices itself...and they usually don’t like it.
   4. Slide16 (11,12) Extra Days?
      1. (11) 30 extra days? 1290
         1. 1 Possible reason, to clean up after the battle of Armageddon.
         2. Rev.14:19-20 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.
      2. (12) 45 extra days? 1335
         1. Possibly to allow for both judgments to take place. [Jewish & Gentile]
            1. Jewish, Ezek. 20:33-38. Gentile/nations/sheep & goat, Mt.25:31-46.
         2. Possibly to allow for time to set up those who would rule & reign over their areas.
         3. Possibly to allow for the division of the Land between the 12 tribes. Ezek.48
         4. Possibly to allow for the earth’s regeneration. Mt.19:28
   5. (13) One last footnote from the angel to Daniel.
      1. Carry on until the end Daniel. Another words, don’t let visions of the future hinder your walk w/the Lord today.
      2. Great advice for us today also...rest, arise (res), then inherit.
         1. ​​​​​​​Too much Prophecy will tip anybody over the edge of good sense. Like the Thessalonians who left their jobs because Jesus was coming again! (They forgot what scripture?…occupy till I come) eg. 2 Thes.3:11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.
      3. Look forward to the Future, but keep your feet in the Present.
         1. Col. 3:1-4 msg So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
   6. End: vs.10 NLT How then shall we live? Many will be purified, cleansed, and refined by these trials. But the wicked will continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand. Only those who are wise will know what it means.
      1. ​​​​​​​Slide18 Lights. Camera. Action. Life is not a rehearsal. This is not a practice or trial performance. This is it. Life is the real thing. Life is a play...direct it.