Daniel already knows his people will finally turn against the truth of God. He knows they will completely lose the ability to understand the Word by their exposure to the Persian and Greek cultures. He knows the Covenant of Moses will come to a close, replaced with some other covenant under the Messiah. That new covenant will include all the world, and Israelites must enter in the same as everyone else. Their unique standing before God will end. He has been warned there is a great evil spirit working through his people, and will next manifest himself via a future King of the North, who will attempt to destroy the Law of Moses, and will have allies within Israel helping him. This one will oppose the Messiah, too. He understands Israel will reject the Messiah, aligning themselves with this evil ruling spirit, that a final battle will destroy Jerusalem, but Satan will not win.
During this last end of Israel and Jerusalem, Michael will arise to take special care over the nation. This final testing will be like nothing Israel has experienced before. Only those who embrace the Messiah, and whose names are written the Lamb's Book of Life will be alive at the end. When the Final Judgment comes, and the dead are called up to face God, some will meet His approval, and some will not. It will not be on the basis of dying in Moses, but in the Messiah -- simply being of Israel will mean nothing. Those who make the transition to the Eternal Kingdom will shine like stars, a witness to the truth revealed in the Messiah.
Daniel was obliged to keep the vision sealed, wrapped up in symbolic and parabolic language. While human knowledge will grow exponentially, and travel across the face of the earth will be easy, it won't help them understand the parabolic language of the Kingdom. Daniel saw in the climax of the vision two attendants with the Messianic figure floating above the Tigris. He swore on the Life of God Himself there would most certainly be a deep and sorrowful time of tribulation when Israel was finally destroyed, tribulation symbolized numerically as three-and-a-half. This final declaration Daniel didn't quite understand, as it was worded. He wanted to know what came after that, but it was not for him to know. They would only make sense to those who came after Christ had inaugurated the Kingdom of Heaven. In due time, those of Israel who were wise would see and understand, but the great many would not, because their hearts would be darkened by sin.
The final verses are cryptic to us because we don't operate under the Hebrew calendar system. Again, it's not a matter of counting off days between two events, but recognizing the numerical reference in the context of Hebrew life and culture. Without burying the reader in details of how this works out, it's enough to note the reference is to a time of tribulation (3.5 years) as it would be counted in Sabbath Years and Jubilee Years, because extra days and months are added to account for the drift in the Hebrew year of 360 days. Jeremiah had prophesied about catching up on the missed Sabbaths (2 Chronicles 36:21). Since we know Daniel was told Israel had not repented, and had earned an additional punishment of 70x7 (chapter 9), this refers to the hope God's wrath will finally be turned away once the Temple is destroyed. To live beyond the destruction of the Temple is to enter a truly blessed Jubilee.
The last verse is one of the earliest clear references to the notion physical death is just a waiting state, a time of rest, after which is the eternal reward. It's the same as telling Daniel his name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
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Ed Hurst
13 December 2007
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