Lent day 21
The End Times Daniel Ch 12
2And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.a 3Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens,b and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.c
4But you, Daniel, shut up these words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will roam to and fro, and knowledge will increase.”
5Then I, Daniel, looked and saw two others standing there, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. 6One of them said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long until the fulfillment of these wonders?”
7And the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by Him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, and times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people has finally been shattered, all these things will be completed.”
8I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?”
9“Go on your way, Daniel,” he replied, “for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. 10Many will be purified, made spotless, and refined, but the wicked will continue to act wickedly. None of the wicked will understand, but the wise will understand.
11And from the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12Blessed is he who waits and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.
13But as for you, go on your way until the end. You will rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.”
And so we arrive at the end of the book. And it ends on quite some statement. There is coming a time which is worse than anything the world has ever seen. Worse than the flood which wiped out a massive part of the known world. Worse than two world wars. Worse than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Worse than Pompeii and Katrina and famine in Ethiopia. Worse than all of these. Hard to conceive what it might be like. But Michael is released to fight for us and those of us whose names are written in the book will be delivered.
I wonder how urgently we will preach the good news in those days. Prior to this end of times we will have seen 2/3 of Israel wiped out and the remaining third turning to Jesus as they suddenly see from scripture that Messiah has already come.(Zech 13:8) Surely as the wars rage those of us who have understood how to read the signs of the times will be called upon to explain whats going on and many , many, many will trust and believe. Because nothing else will make sense. We will point to the book of Daniel and say ' Look! It says here that everything that is happening has already been foretold. And it also says that if you turn to Jesus you will be saved.' The wise ( thats us!) will shine. Those who lead many to righteousness (that's also us!) will shine. We will be light in the immense darkness. We will show people the way. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined. Phew! That's so good to know,.
Daniel asks what anyone would ask. When exactly is all this going to happen?
And then we get some numbers. And the numbers here are slightly different from the numbers John receives in Revelation 12 which also talks about the very end of the end times. Here its 1290 days. In Rev 12 its 1260 days. Has someone made a mistake somewhere? Errrr unlikely :) There is going to be a set number of days between the time of the outlawing of worship and the institution of the worship of the Antichrist. 1260 days. (3.5 years Jewish calendar ) After which Jesus will come back. And when He comes He is going to do some things - separate the sheep from the goats for example. (Matt 25: 31) 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Let's assume that the process of judging the nations takes 30 days.
Then Daniel is told that anyone who is still standing at day 1335 will be blessed. Thats an additional 45 days. I dont know whats going to happen in those 45 days. But it is so specific and if we have learned anything from the book of Daniel its that every single revelation he was given has come to pass in each and every detail. So theres no reason to doubt that this last part is going to play out exactly as it is written.
At the end of the book the angels reassure Daniel by basically telling him that he doesnt need to know or understand every detail, he just needs to trust. ' You will rest and rise to your inheritance at the end' In other words, its all going to be OK. You will be fine. You have done your job, run your race. Well done Daniel. You can live out the rest of your days in peace.
I dont know about you, but having read through Daniel and done a much more thorough study of it than I have ever done before, I feel much more reassured about the 'end times' which people have said for generations that we must surely be living in now. I think its clear that we arent there yet. There are things which still need to happen. As we look out across the ever fractured and fracturing world I think we can see that these days are approaching. But theres probably a way to go before they are here. So I think we need, with Daniel, to rest safe in the knowledge that when we need to know we will know. And that the angels will be with us and we shall be used to bring many into the kingdom.
Now what am I going to write about tomorrow? 😁
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