Knowing versus Trusting
Daniel 12
Preacher: David Williams
Daniel 12. Knowing versus Trusting. Sermon
30 June 2024 David Williams. Strathalbyn Church of Christ.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Mothers warn their daughters – don’t go there. Don’t dress that way. Stay away from that boy. Trust me, when you are older, one day, you will know. Trusting versus knowing. They are different, are they not?
Today’s sermon is about trusting our heavenly Father. He knows. Our job is not to know all that he knows: just to trust him who does know.
The devil promotes knowledge at the expense of trust. He doubted God’s word and insisted Adam and Eve could know as much as God – not by trusting him but by doubting him and going their own way. Knowledge is a good thing, but to misquote CS Lewis – if you educate a devil all you end up with is a clever devil. Knowledge without trust in God can be dangerous.
There are many prophets – Christian and secular. Some promise doom. Some offer hope. The world will end in our lifetime, even this year. A local church has been advertising seminars about prophecies. Who can we believe? What can we know? It can be very confusing. What can we know with certainty. Stay tuned. Daniel is about to tell us.
Background
In these final chapters – Daniel 10-12, Daniel has a vision. Chapter 11 is a prophecy about the earthly empires that came after Daniel. These ended with an evil ruler – Antiochus, who reigned for 11 years.
Daniel’s first readers were Jews still suffering in exile. The Jews would soon suffer at the hands of Antiochus. He tried to destroy the Jews and their God. Yet Daniel wrote to assure them – God was in control. He would be victorious over evil and would save his people.
Daniel 10 introduces the vision. A heavenly messenger appeared to Daniel at the Tigris River. We now return to this river scene in Daniel 12.
What is the heavenly message for Daniel and the exiles? What is the message for us? It is not an easy message. It’s not easy to understand. It’s not easy to hear. But there are three things that we may know. Three things of which we can be sure.
We know there will be:
- Trouble with deliverance v1
- Judgement with resurrection v2-3
- An end, in God’s timing v4-13
1.Trouble with deliverance
there shall be a time of trouble greater than any since nations first came into being. 12.1
The Jewish exiles were promised trouble. Antiochus brought trouble with a ferocity never before experienced. We too are promised trouble. This is normal for the Christian. But hope is also promised. A certain hope that endures when troubles have passed.
Paul promised that,
all who desire to lead a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 2 Tim 3.12.
But the crown of righteousness awaits Paul and all who share his faith. 2 Tim 3:8.
Jesus promised:
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
But he also promised:
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Mt 5:11-12.
Like their master, the followers of Jesus
… will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Mt 10:22.
And Jesus warned,
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Again, hear his promise:
For … whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Mt 16:24-25.
Yes, there will be suffering. When you are facing an operation, you know it will be painful. How do you cope? You don’t cope by dwelling on the discomfort as they poke and prod you. You don’t cope by speculating about the risks of it failing. You don’t cope by imagining the pain. No, you look ahead to a healthy body, free of pain. That’s how you cope.
Persecution is coming. Increasingly, Christians are not just ignored but are positively hated in the West. If you dwell on the coming persecution – you will not sleep. If you look instead to our eternal reward – you will know his peace. Like our master we will sleep peacefully despite any raging storm (Mt 8:22-25). We do not need to know the details of any threatened troubles, but we do need to trust our Lord who will deliver us.
So yes, there will be trouble
*… there shall be a time of trouble …*12.1
But deliverance will come
But at that time your people shall be delivered …
2.Judgement with resurrection
2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
The exiles were comforted by two things.
- Knowing that justice would be done – that those who persecuted them would face eternal punishment.
- Knowing that God will reward his people with eternal life.
The afterlife in the OT is portrayed in vague, shadowy terms. That’s why some in Jesus’ day – the Sadducees – didn’t believe in a resurrection. But here we have the clearest statement on the afterlife in the OT.
We don’t like hell. Many try to explain it away. But this is not such a problem for people facing persecution. I think we can understand how they felt – for there is a deep desire for justice built into us. This desire is not the same as blood thirsty vengeance. No, it is the desire we all have to see things set to rights. To see the guilty get the punishment that they deserve. To see the innocent vindicated.
Jesus was in no doubt about the reality of hell. He spoke about it more than anyone. He spoke of:
- a chasm that cannot be crossed (Lk 16);
- sending the wicked to eternal fire (Mt 25; Mk 9.43);
- eternal torment (Lk 16.23), where the worm does not die (Mk 9.48); a place of gnashing of teeth (Mt 13:42); and
- He likened Hell to Gehenna, the ever-burning rubbish dump outside Jerusalem (Mt 10.28).
No one can accuse Jesus of a lack of love for sinners – he laid down his life for his enemies. But in his love, he warned people in blunt terms of the dangers of hell. And if we truly love our neighbour, we will likewise warn of the dangers of hell.
Frequently Christians are plagued by doubts. Will God deliver me? Will I too go to hell. For my faith is weak. I keep on sinning. I’m a failure as a Christian. Why should God deliver me? Notice how the faithful are described in four ways:
But at that time your people shall be delivered,
They are your people – the children of God, those who belong to him. We are precious to God. He will never let us fall from his hands.
everyone whose name shall be found written in the book…
We are written in his book. His book of life. He wrote us into it before we were even born. We were chosen by him not for anything we have done or will do. God chose us because he loved us.
3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above;
God’s people are ‘the wise’. Those who reject God – the Bible calls them fools. The eminent physicist Stephen Hawking was brilliant in his field. Yet he strayed beyond what he knew and speculated about what he could not know. He declared that God did not exist. God’s verdict: Stephen Hawking was a fool. He foolishly rejected his creator.
and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
God’s people will ‘turn many to righteousness’. That is our task here – to call people to turn to God in repentance and faith. And that includes warning of the dangers of hell.
The result will be as Paul put it – God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, 1 Cor 1:27. Those unimportant, those foolish Christians, those no-bodies – what will be their reward? They shall shine like the brightness of the sky above. The memory of their works will live on in eternity – just like the stars forever and ever.
3.An end, in God’s timing.
An angel asked this question:
How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?
The answer God gave was not at all helpful – that’s how it looks. Indeed, when you look at these last 3 chapters you could be forgiven for thinking that God is just playing games with us. For he offers some tantalising dish which then vanishes as soon as we reach out to take it. He gives explanations that leave more questions than answers.
I’m not alone here. Daniel was also confused. On the one hand there is very specific information on times, places and dates. Yet these are shrouded in such vague images. At best we can only hazard a guess on some of them. Very specific information is given about historic realities. For instance:
In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a word was revealed to Daniel … 10.1
We know a lot about king Cyrus. But then we meet at least four heavenly beings. Two are warrior angels. And a man dressed in linen –the outfit of a priest. He looks a lot like Christ in Revelation. Is it Christ or another angel? We can’t be sure.
We also know the place – Daniel was standing on the Tigris river in Babylon. This is in modern day Iraq.
… as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the Tigris) 12.4
And we know the date. Not just the date but the actual day, 11 May 535BC.1
In the third year of Cyrus… On the twenty-fourth day of the first month… 10.1, 4
And there are other references to times.
And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days. 12.11-12
OT prophecies are a bit like reusable Woolworths bags – you often get two or three uses out of them. Now it’s possible to make these days fit into the reign of Antiochus - sort of. It’s a bit like the rough bush carpentry we knocked up on the farm. You know the type – when it doesn’t quite fit, a bit of persuasion with an axe and crowbar will fix it. And you can make the days fit into his reign - sort of.
Jesus later reused this prophecy:
the abomination that makes desolate
He predicted the desolation of the temple. The Romans set up an abominable idol there in 70 AD. We might even squeeze a further use out of some of these prophecies when it comes to Jesus’ return.
But some of these times are plain riddles:
“How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?” … it would be for a time, times, and half a time. Dan 12:6-7
A bloke walks into a pub. Produces a $100 bill. “I’ve got a riddle. Tell me the answer and the money is yours. What does this mean: time, times and half a time?” Many take it as a year, two years and half a year – i.e., 3 ½ years. The problem is that the Hebrew language does not allow that. It has one word meaning two times, and a different one meaningmany times. In v7, the word used is many times. If time = 1 year, times could be 3, or 8 or 16 years. This means that the riddle cannot be solved.
So, on the one hand, there is very specific information. On the other hand, riddles. What is going on here? But it gets even more difficult. Look at God’s promises. God promises to give understanding.
… Daniel, from the first day that you set your heart to understand … I have come … to make you understand what is to happen …
Know, understand, reveal - these and similar meanings turn up at least 15 times in these last three chapters. A common thread of understanding runs through them. And yet far from knowing and understanding, Daniel is left in the dark. At the end, Daniel confessed,
I heard,but I did not understand. 12.8
This wasn’t for lack of trying or devotion:
- Daniel was a man of prayer. He had just spent 3 weeks praying and fasting (10:2).
- Daniel was a man who knew trial and persecution.
- Daniel was a prophet – God spoke through him.
- Daniel was a faithful servant of God. He is almost unique in the Bible in having no black marks against his name. He served God faithfully in a pagan world all his life.
- Daniel searched earnestly for answers about the end. When would the end come? What would it look like.
Yet he did not know. He searched for understanding yet did not understand.
It was not just Daniel who did not know. Even the angel did not know. For the angel has to ask,
… “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?” 12.6
Even Jesus did not know the day of his return. He said,
But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father, Mk 13:32.
If Daniel, the angel and even Jesus do not know about end times, how is it that modern day prophets so confidently tell us about these mysteries? There is a well-known evangelical preacher who writes and preaches a great deal on the end time. Has he got things out of balance? Has he lost the plot? If you are spending lots of time on this stuff, you need to ask that too.
Look at the example of the apostles in Acts. What did they preach about? Armageddon? No – in fact, that only gets one mention in the whole Bible. The Rapture? Again no. Their passion was to preach the resurrection. Jesus is risen! Jesus has defeated death!
Jesus may return before tomorrow’s dawn. Jesus may return in the year 3000. Friends, I have no idea. I don’t care how many books a prophet has written – they cannot help us either. The point is, we need to focus on the things we do know and leave the future in his hands.
God doesn’t play games with us. There is a point to these chapters. I think it is to show Daniel, and us, the limits of our understanding. God did give Daniel understanding. Like the mother warning her young daughter, the message is,
Trust me, one day you will know.
God was saying to Daniel – there are things you cannot know and do not need to know.
He was not simply saying – forget about it. Daniel was commanded, twice, to seal up the words of the prophecy.
But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end … 12.4
Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. 12.9
The truth about the end is sealed up (cf., Rev 5:2, 5; 10:4; 22:10). That is, God knows. He doesn’t intend us to know. Focus on the things that matter. Don’t worry about the things we can’t know, or don’t need to know. Daniel was told – get on with life. Twice he was told, Go your way.
Go your way, Daniel …But go your way till the end. 12.9, 13
Get on with serving me. Don’t get caught up in pointless speculations and worry about the future.
Jesus said a similar thing to Peter. After the resurrection, Peter asked what would become of John. Jesus said, mind your own business.
If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me! John 21:22.
We are Worry Warts by nature. Jesus tackled this head on.
Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matt 6:34.
God knows, we don’t. Our job is not to try and know the things we cannot know: the things that God has sealed up. Our job is to trust him. Surely each day has enough of its own troubles without speculating about the future.
Lord, thank you that as we trust in you, we have no need to be anxious for anything. Rather in everything, by prayer and thanksgiving we make our requests to you. Grant us your peace that passes all understanding, that our hearts and minds may be guarded in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Sources:
- Reid, A. (1993). Daniel : kingdoms in conflict. Aquila Press.
- Longman T. (1999). Daniel. Zondervan.
Tags:
- Daniel, End-times, Prophecy, Persecution, Hope, Hell
Series: Daniel
Topics: #Daniel , #End-times , #Prophecy , #Persecution , #Hope , #Hell