Daniel 12

Chapter 12 continues where chapter 11 stopped so we need a quick refresher on chapter 11.

Back in chapter 10 an angel appeared to Daniel to tell him the future of his people. At the very end of that chapter, the angel begins this long description that continues through chapter 11 and into this chapter.

From Daniel 9 we know that this event marks the midpoint of the 70^th week of years. At approximately 3.5 years from that event the Second Coming occurs.

This event also marks the beginning of a time called Jacob's Trouble and also the Great Tribulation. This will be a period of death and destruction, both man-made and natural, that will be worse than any other in all of history. The Bible says that if this time was not kept short no one would survive.

This mid-point of the 70^th week is going to be important to the study of Chapter 12. Keep it in mind.

Chapter 11 continues from verse 31 above to describe some of the actions of the little horn (anti-Christ) through to his demise 3.5 years later at the end of the 70^th week. It closes with the words "Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him." Revelation fills in some details by saying that the Messiah returns, grabs him up and throws him directly into the Lake of Fire. 1000 years later those not found in the Book of Life on Judgment Day will be joining him.

Lesson

Chapter 12 begins by backing up to the middle of the 70^th week to give a more general description, one not centered around the little horn. Remember that the beginning of this time is marked by the abomination of desolation.

The abomination of desolation is a key event in the end times and is mentioned in many places. Read Daniel 8:11-13, Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14, and Luke 21:20.

Daniel the prophet refers to this event and Jesus himself also refers to it.

It even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down. ¹² And on account of transgression the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice; and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper. ¹³ Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, "How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled?" (Daniel 8:11-13)

And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate." (Daniel 9:27)

Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶ then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. (Matthew 24:15-16)

But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. (Mark 13:14)

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. ²¹ Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city (Luke 21:20)

Antiochus Epiphanes is the "type" for the anti-Christ. He brought a pig into the temple and sacrificed it.

1. We talked about him before in this series on Daniel. Who, what and why is this Michael?

Michael is the national angel of Israel. He is one of the most powerful of angels and he works to protect Israel under orders from God. As a national angel he is in charge of implementing God's plans for the people of that nation. There are other verses that refer to this idea of national angels.

Looking only at this chapter it isn't clear why he would be referred to at all. Revelation and other prophetic books fill in some of the details. The purpose of the little horn in attacking Jerusalem is to wipe out the Jews and Israel. Those Jews who survive are deported to live in other countries. This is his solution to the mid-east problem.

God will intervene directly in those events to ensure that a remnant of Israel survives through to the end of the 70^th week. That is where Michael comes in - working to protect God's people.

Having said the last 3.5 years before the Messiah will be terrible, he skips to the end of those years, when the Messiah does come.

Jesus, the apostles, and the early churches used the word "sleep" to describe physical death. We use the word "death" now. We would say "he has died"; they would say "he has fallen asleep." The word "sleep" was used to show that death is not final. It is only a temporary separation. Jesus made it clear we need to avoid the Second Death and the Lake of Fire. That's permanent.

1b. The verse says times will be more distressing than any other "since there was a nation." What is meant by that?

It's a reference to the flood. There were no nations until after the flood. The point though is that only the flood will be a worse disaster.

At the time of Babel the people had a wide range of skin colors and other physical characteristics. When God "confused" their language he didn't do it randomly, thereby splitting up families. He used the new languages to group people and thus he produced races and nations.

The angel is referring to the resurrection of the dead that happens when the Messiah returns. He says that those who do awaken will have everlasting life. The others … not so much.

NKJV sounds like some of the dead who arise at the Second Coming receive eternal torment and it leaves a third group unexplained.

That would be doctrinally incorrect. Paul specifically says that only believers are resurrected. A careful examination of the Hebrew for this verse shows the correct meaning.

It would also be logically incorrect. If you remove the believers and unbelievers from a group, what do you have left? The answer is nothing because "believer" and "unbeliever" are mutually exclusive terms. Each person must be one or the other.

By "brightness" the angel is talking about the glory we will have after the resurrection. Notice that he singles out two groups:

This is the only place I know of where the Bible says there is a reward for both those who bring unbelievers to salvation and those who teach the believers. That makes sense of course. We are to make disciples, not just converts.

Many people have struggled with both parts of this verse. In the first part the angel instructs Daniel to conceal the words he is writing. We are at the end of the book of Daniel with parts of it having been written years before. Is Daniel supposed to go back and write them again so they are concealed? How exactly is Daniel to write them in a concealed way?

The prophecies in Daniel are written using a lot of symbolism that conceals them. Are we to understand that this symbolism was created by Daniel himself? I don't think so. It's more likely the angel is saying that Daniel has been writing them in a concealed form all along.

What we do know for certain is that the prophecies have been written in a concealed way so that they can't be fully understood until the end of time. Given the history that has gone by since Daniel's time, people have been able to figure out much of the symbolism. If you think of it from Daniel's point of view all the heads, horns, and beasts running about would have been confusing. In fact, a few verses later Daniel will say essentially "I don't get it."

3. The second part of verse 4 is also odd. The angel is speaking about how people will live at the end time, saying people will go back and forth and knowledge will increase. What could he mean by this?

I don't see any sensible way to interpret that other than an age where people travel all over the earth during an information age, i.e. now.

Especially our children don't understand the rapid change our society has gone through. For about 6000 years the fastest way to travel was a horse and chariot. That was true until the very early 1900s. Only 70 years later people were walking on the Moon.

For those same 6000 years, information traveled no faster than a horse and chariot. This was true until the middle 1800s. Now everyone, even children, are able to communicate with anyone on the planet. Everyone has the ability to share ideas, including interpretations of Bible verses, such as those in Daniel.

This seems like a very complex way to provide us with a time. That may mean that we don't understand all of it. The river indicates a flow of events through time. We use "rivers" in a similar way in the expression "water under the bridge", which means an event happened in the past and there is no getting back to change it. The man in linen above the river is the "time keeper". He knows the past and the future.

Time, Times and Half a Time

God seems to be saying that this time, times, and half a time is a pattern that will be seen in history at different times and at different time scales.

He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time. (Daniel 7:25)

And two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman to fly into the wilderness to her place, to be sustained there for a time, times, and half a time, from before the face of the Serpent. (Revelation 12:14)

We like prophecies that have pinpoint accuracy for one particular event. God loves prophecies that describe more than one future event. We saw an example in Daniel chapter 8 where Antiochus Epiphanes is a type of the future anti-Christ and what the prophecy says about Antiochus is also true of the future anti-Christ.

Notice that the starting point of this "time, times, and half a time" is at best not clear. The question being answered is "How long will it be until the end." There is general agreement that "times" always means two times, giving us a total of 3.5 times. It seems likely that this "time until the end" is correct for the following units of time.

Not only is it likely that all of these are intended but they are also likely intended to be inexact. So, about 3.5 years, about 7 years, about 7000 years. God can be precise when he wants to be and he will be a few verses from now.

The grouping into 3 groups of 1 unit, 2 units and 0.5 units is also likely intentional. It isn't clear what those groups would be for future events but it is clear what they mean for the 7000 year period.

Shattering the Power

There is one event that happens very shortly before the Messiah returns, an event that is very important to God. This comes when his people accept the Messiah they once crucified. That is the event described here, the shattering of their determination to reject Jesus as the Messiah. This is their come-to-Jesus moment as they realize what they did to their promised Messiah.

Daniel says "I don't get it" and the angel says "Don't worry. It isn't for you anyway." Again the angel talks about the words being concealed so they can't be understood until the end. He says the good will be made better in that time. In this context the angel must mean they will be made better by these words. Chapter 11 verse 35 also refers to the wise being purified and refined. The wicked, however, will continue to be wicked and will not understand the wise.

God doesn't measure years as 365.25 days as we do. On God's calendar a year is 360 days - it's called a prophetic year, 12 months of 30 days. Now recall that the primary meaning of "time, times, and half a time" is 3.5 years. That's 3.5 prophetic years or 1260 days. Revelation 11:3 and 12:6 refer to these 1260 days. But remember that's "about" 3.5 years. Here though, we see two numbers that are very close but slightly longer. 1290 is 30 days, a month, longer and 1335 is another 45 days, a month and a half longer than that.

There are all kinds of ideas about what these mean but no agreement. It doesn't help that these two numbers don't appear anywhere else in the Bible.

They are, however, exact. From the day that the abomination of desolation is setup, which is the same day the regular sacrifice is stopped (Daniel 11:31 again), until some unspecified event is 1290 days. 45 days later there is another event that will be a great blessing … and apparently a surprise.

The angel tells Daniel to continue as he has been until his end, until he sleeps. Then he will enter into rest. Then, at the end of time he will rise again to receive his reward (allotted portion), just as the angel described those who arise to shine brightly forever and ever (v3).

5. Speculate. Why didn't the Sadducees of Jesus' time believe in a resurrection from the dead?

They were "sad, you see" - sad excuses for Bible scholars. That happens in our time as well. People will latch onto a bad idea and whenever a verse is found that contradicts the bad idea, they will find some way to twist the meaning of the verse.

The Sadducees, as an organization, didn't last more than a couple decades after Jesus. The Pharisees, however, changed and became the Rabbinical system that exists today.

Notes

This lesson can be found at http://ourhope.site/2016-09-28%20Daniel12/D12.html. If you are setup to scan QR codes, this code will take you there.

Home	Our Hope
Bible Study		September 28, 2016
Daniel 12

Introduction

Lesson

Time, Times and Half a Time

Shattering the Power

Notes