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Chapter 12:8-10 (ESV) - I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, “O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?” He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.”
Question to consider: Where in scripture were these words commanded to be unsealed?
For the second time, Daniel was told that he didn’t need to understand all that would occur at the end of the age, for it was a long time off, and these things should be shut up and sealed. I believe that Daniel was one of the prophets the apostle Peter had in mind when he wrote, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” (1 Peter 1:10-12)
I also believe that the events described in today’s passage concerned the fall of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70. This is why the apostle John was told, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” (Revelation 22:10-11) In order to hold this view, I argue that the book of Revelation was written sometime before AD 70. Luther believed it was written sometime during the 90’s because of what was written by Iranaeus, bishop of Lyon. However, I think the internal evidence of the book speaks to an earlier writing. I wrote more about this in my introduction to John’s Gospel.
It would have been about six hundred years between the point in which Daniel received these words and their fulfillment. If the LORD referred to six hundred years as far off, there is no sense in which John would have been told to “unseal the words for the time is near” if the judgment described would take more than two thousand years and require the temple to be rebuilt.
People have argued that the LORD used the word near so that we would live with the expectation of Christ’s imminent return. However, this imminence is diminished when it requires the demolishing of the Dome of the Rock mosque, rebuilding of a Jewish temple, and the rise of an anti-Christ to global power. True expectation of Christ’s imminent return is knowing that we are living in the Kingdom Age of Christ, and He can return at any moment to put an end to sin and death without anything else required in the prophetic timeline. With this view, our prayer for Christ to “Come!” actually means something. We are not praying for Christ to begin a series of events that will allow Him to return, but that He would return at that very moment.
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for Your patience in the midst of this sinful world so that more people can turn to Christ and turn from the judgment that is to come. While this opportunity still remains, we pray that You would stir up in us a desire to proclaim the glory of Christ. Amen.