The (Un)Sealed Book
Daniel: A Call to Worship--Part 40
4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
5 Then I, Daniel, looked; and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the other on that riverbank. 6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?”
7 Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.
8 Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things?”
9 And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 10 Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
11 “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. 12 Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
13 “But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days” (Daniel 12:4-13).
The prophetic narrative of Daniel 10-12 began with Daniel prayerfully seeking understanding and being given an Answer via a vision of Jesus Christ. The middle of the narrative is an extensive in-depth prophecy through the history of the kingdoms of man waging war against the Kingdom of God, attacking the King by attacking His children. In our last presentation, we saw Christ’s response, His wrath poured on the wicked followed by His return in glory to save His chosen ones. The narrative ends as it had begun. Daniel was again asking for wisdom to understand, and the Answer was again given him via a vision of Jesus Christ.
In reading the ten verses, we see there are basically three motifs presented in repetition.
The book of Daniel is sealed until the time of the end (Daniel 12:4,9,10).
The time frame granted to the kingdoms of man (Daniel 12:5-8,11,12).
The assurance of final deliverance (Daniel 12:13).
In this final presentation of our series on Daniel, we will study each motif individually.
The book of Daniel is sealed until the time of the end (Daniel 12:4,9,10).
4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
9 And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 10 Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand (Daniel 12:4,9,10).
Daniel was told by the angel not to stress over the meaning of what he had seen, because the book was to be “sealed” up until “the time of the end.” He was promised that there would be a time when knowledge would increase and the wise would understand.
Much has been made in Christian circles about the books of apocalyptic prophecy being “sealed.” Many Christians have been taught that we are not to study Daniel and Revelation due to the instruction found in this one verse. The reasoning is offered that we have no idea when the time of the end could be. Therefore, we have no reason to believe the books have ever been unsealed.
There are a couple problems with this theory. First, in contrast to Daniel, Revelation was never a sealed book.
And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand (Revelation 22:10).
The very name of the book is “Jesus Christ Revealed.”
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near (Revelation 1:1-3).
But second, even in the book of Daniel, we see a stopping point to the time the book would be sealed. It would be until “the time of the end.” What do we know about the time of the end?
“many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (Daniel 12:4).
and…
till the time of the end. 10 Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand (Daniel 12:9,10).
In a very literal sense, “running to and fro” and an increase in knowledge is unmistakably accurate of the past few centuries. I can’t pretend that I would have had the ingenuity to survive in the New England winters of the 1600s. But my great-grandmother’s generation who began their lives in covered wagons and died after the moon landing would have never disputed that either Biblical descriptor fails to find application in our present day.
I have been told by those who understand Bible vocabulary much better than I do that these descriptions are actual spiritual applications rather than secular. They were written in a way to imply Biblical knowledge increasing through Bible students “running to and fro” from the back to front of their Bibles studying out the meaning of these passages. From the early 1800s, the British and American Bible societies began spreading God’s Word around the world. Today, billions of humans have access to God’s Word in their own language 24/7/365 via an app on their phones.
https://youtu.be/5Saab53GGyI?si=eF0Bnh7iFWmLo7Uk
I hope and pray that, whether in relation to this blog or simply your own Bible reading plan, in some way you are personally fulfilling this prophecy of running to and fro and that your Bible knowledge is increasing. I especially hope and pray you are fulfilling the portion of being purified, made white and refined, and being wise to understand.
Beyond these general predictions, is there any way to more specifically confirm whether or not we have crossed the threshold of the time of the end? Has the book of Daniel been unsealed yet? Can we know for sure? The answer can be found by “running to and fro” within the book of Daniel ourselves. Which brings us to…
The time frame granted to the kingdoms of man (Daniel 12:5-8,11,12).
The prophetic narrative in Daniel 8,9 states that the time of the end would have arrived by the time the “sanctuary would be cleansed,” when the judgment day in heaven would begin.
Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, “How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?”
14 And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”
15 Then it happened, when I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was seeking the meaning, that suddenly there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. 16 And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, who called, and said, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” 17 So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was afraid and fell on my face; but he said to me, “Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end” (Daniel 8:13-17).
We have already learned that this 2300-day (day for a year) prophecy began with the third decree to rebuild Jerusalem, found in Ezra 7. The decree was issued in the fall of 457 BC. It would expire with the beginning of the heavenly judgment hour 2300 years later in the fall of 1844 AD. The presentation Right on Time unpackaged the prophecy timeline if you would like to review the passage.
Right on Time
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law (Galatians 4:4).
We can know for certain that we are living in the time of the end because we are living in the great judgment hour of apocalyptic prophecy which the Bible says would begin during “the time of the end.”
The book of Daniel is no longer sealed. The book of Revelation was never sealed. We as Christians are today responsible for studying and understanding the meaning of the apocalyptic words that were hidden since the days of Daniel.
Then I, Daniel, looked; and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the other on that riverbank. 6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?”
7 Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.
8 Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things?”
11 “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. 12 Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days (Daniel 12:5-8,11,12).
The passage in Daniel’s closing chapter gives an even earlier starting date for the time of the end, the conclusion of the “time, times, and half a time,” which ended in 1798. We have seen that this time prophecy refers to the temporal reign of the papal little horn power, that extended from 538-1798 AD.
Who is the Man declaring the same time prophecy in this chapter? It is Christ Himself. How can we know that the One clothed in linen is the same One who John saw tending the candlesticks in heaven’s sanctuary in Revelation 1? When Christ makes the promise to overturn the kingdoms of man, He puts His own Name on the line, “Him who lives forever.”
The author of Hebrews wrote that God puts His own Name on the line when making a promise because there is nothing greater that He can use to affirm His Word. The Name of the Creator whose Name is Truth (John 14:6). Christ is the One for whom lying is a literal impossibility (Titus 1:2).
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us (Hebrews 6:13-18).
The same Jesus who promised Abraham that he would have a son and be a blessing to the entire planet also promised Daniel that soon after the 1260-year prophecy was completed, the King of heaven would intervene to right the wrongs of the human kingdoms against His people.
Daniel was told to seal his book. Daniel was promised by the Man in linen, the God who cannot lie, the Savior of the world, that the time of the end would come when the book would be unsealed.
John was prophetically shown the same Man standing in the same exalted position with an open book in His hand.
I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 2 He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3 and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. 4 Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”
5 The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven 6 and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, 7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets (Daniel 10:1-7).
What book was Jesus holding when He made the announcement? Revelation does not specify, but Bible prophecy only identifies one book that was ever to be sealed and later opened by the power of Christ. The book of Daniel.
John was told that the “mystery of God” would be completed when the seventh trumpet was about to sound. What is the “mystery of God”?
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
Jesus announced that prophecy’s great climax would occur when the “mystery of God” would be complete, when Christ’s character was implanted in the hearts of His people.
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us (2 Corinthians 4:6,7).
In contrast to the “mystery of God,” the “mystery of iniquity,” aka the “man of sin” of 2 Thessalonians 2, has the Satanic goal of preventing Christ’s character being implanted into human hearts. The mystery of iniquity was prophesied to attempt to block the New Covenant promise from being implanted in our hearts by attacking Heaven’s sanctuary in Daniel 8:9-12. The sanctuary depicts the plan of salvation.
Christ promised Daniel that during “the time of the end,” the little horn power’s attack on Heaven’s sanctuary would be overturned. Each of the spiritual applications of the articles of furniture would be restored. Through the plan of salvation depicted in the sanctuary service, “many” would be purified, and “the wise” would understand.
Altar: Justification through faith in the cross of Christ.
Laver: Baptism by immersion demonstrating the death and burial of the old life of sin and a resurrection to a new life in Christ.
Table of Showbread: The Bible and the Bible alone as the rule of faith and doctrine.
Seven-branched Candlestick: Sharing the Gospel of salvation with the world.
Altar of Incense: The sinner may directly come boldly before the Eternal throne through the merits and in the Name and power of Jesus Christ.
Ark of the Covenant: The entire Ten Commandment Law written by the finger of Christ would be restored, including the Fourth Commandment that was changed by the little horn power.
Great High Priest: Christ, our Advocate in the courts of Heaven, ministering in the True Sanctuary not made by human hands.
The seventh trumpet would sound. The “mystery of God” would be completed. The attack on Heaven’s sanctuary would be reversed. The image of God would be revealed in His people. The great judgment day would expose the futility of human efforts to establish any sort of righteousness apart from the blood of Christ. The New Covenant Promise would be exemplified in the hearts and minds of God’s people. “Christ in you, the Hope of glory.”
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 10:16,17).
Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads (Revelation 14:1).
What outward demonstration would this transformation look like to a watching world and supernatural universe?
here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12).
The law of God written in their hearts and minds is naturally lived out in their daily decisions and actions.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Revelation 14:4).
The sins they have committed have been wiped clean by grace through faith in the blood of the Lamb.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it isthe gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10).
What events did the sounding of the seventh trumpet signify? The seventh trumpet would open with the heavenly judgment (1844 AD) and be completed by the return of Jesus.
Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” 16 And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:
“We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
The One who is and who was and who is to come,
Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come,
And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,
And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints,
And those who fear Your name, small and great,
And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”
19 Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail (Revelation 11:15-19).
At the time of the end, the seventh trumpet would sound, the books would be opened, the judgment would begin, the mystery of God would be completed as His character would be reflected in His people, and Jesus would soon return.
Satan is not idle while God is changing lives during the time of the end. In fact, Satan is working harder than ever to deceive and separate people from Christ. Again, the mystery of iniquity is the antithesis of “the mystery of God: Christ in you, the Hope of glory.”
During the Dark Ages, Satan attacked God’s people so powerfully that he would have eradicated God’s truth from the earth had Christ not specifically interposed to save His people and preserve the message of salvation.
Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth (Revelation 12:13-16).
But at the end of the 1260-year prophecy, at the time of the end, when the seventh trumpet is about to sound, Revelation tells us that Satan will even increase his efforts to destroy truth, as well as all those who receive the New Covenant promise.
And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:17).
Peter wrote a similar description of the evil one.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).
But Christ’s faithful ones are not to fear. They are the apple of His eye, the constant recipients of His protective care. The mystery of Godliness, Christ in you, the Hope of glory, is a power that Satan cannot overcome.
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31-39).
Apocalyptic prophecy is not a collection of scary beasts and a prediction of hellfire intended to frighten people into submission to God.
Apocalyptic prophecy is not a prediction of God’s plan for the political nation of Israel to somehow win back control of the ancient Davidic kingdom on earth.
Apocalyptic prophecy is the story of salvation through the blood of Christ and a call to worship Him alone in Spirit and in Truth.
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death (Revelation 12:10,11).
The promise of Christ assured Daniel that the judgment would make things right, and at the return of Jesus, the kingdoms of man would crumble forever. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the kingdoms of man being blown away like dust on the floor would be a reality.
When would these things be? At the end of the 1260-year prophecy, the “time of the end” would begin. At the end of the 2300-year prophecy, the judgment would begin. At that point, all time prophecies would have been fulfilled. “There should be delay no longer” (Revelation 10:6). The mystery of God would be completed as Christ’s character would be reflected in His people. And the result of this heavenly judgment would be that Christ would be given the Kingdom for eternity.
But the court shall be seated,
And they shall take away his dominion,
To consume and destroy it forever.
27 Then the kingdom and dominion,
And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven,
Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High.
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And all dominions shall serve and obey Him (Daniel 7:26,27).
The assurance of final deliverance (Daniel 12:13).
But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days (Daniel 12:13).
Daniel would not live to see the fulfillment of the prophecies he received. He wouldn’t live long enough to understand the prophecies. But he was given the assurance that his name would be called on the great resurrection day, and that would be enough.
With Job, he could proclaim his confidence in the God whom he loved.
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:25,26).
With Paul, he could look back on his life and know that through the grace of Christ, he had been faithful.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:7,8).
With the redeemed who have died through all the ages past, he could descend to the grave resting peacefully, waiting for his Redeemer to call him from the grave.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them” (Revelation 14:13).
Your dead shall live;
Together with my dead body they shall arise.
Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust;
For your dew is like the dew of herbs,
And the earth shall cast out the dead (Isaiah 26:19).
The author of Hebrews wrote about those who, like Daniel, came under the power of death here on this earth. They are resting in their graves until the resurrection morning.
And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us (Hebrews 11:39,40).
But their record of faithfulness is also a call for us.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1,2).
Whether we live to see Jesus return or fall asleep in death, we can have the assurance that Christ will return to claim His own.
But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:1-3).
But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days (Daniel 12:13).
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.”
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20).
