Revision as of 15:22, 4 April 2024

Theological Proposition/Focus: God desires for His people to enjoy His blessing in His timing in his way.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: Daniel was told that he could rest because at the end he would receive God’s blessing.

Introduction:

Setting the Stage:

Today we have reached the end of Daniel and we have been through a lot. We have seen a dedicated man of God hold firm in his faith, leverage the power of prayer, and boldly stand before the rulers of the earth. We have heard God's words spoken to this prophet and the future laid before us in incredible detail. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Daniel to live most of his life in a foreign land trusting God. Sure he saw a lot of prophecies and miracles, but memories fade and being faithful is sometimes just hard!

Today we wrap up the book of Daniel by looking at a final question. Are we there yet?

Text: Daniel 12:4-13 read all at the beginning

Image: Driving across the country to visit grandma and grandpa.

My dad was born and raised in Brazil on the Amazon but by the time I was born my grandparents had moved back to North Carolina. Every other year we would all load into the van and drive from Colorado to North Carolina. The trip was 1591 miles each way. We would wake up early in the morning, my parents would tell us to go to sleep in the can and we would drive. Usually by breakfast, we would be pulling into Hays Kansas and we would stop for McDonalds before continuing on the road. We had a box full of snacks and books to read. But, by the time we passed through Kansas City the question on our minds was always. Are we there yet? How much longer? The answer was 16 or so more hours of driving. We were kids and really didn't understand time but we all knew that 16 hours was a whole lot of time.

In life we are on a sort of road trip. From the moment we accept Jesus as our personal Savior we are born again and we set out on a journey. We know the destination is eternal life with our God. But there are times when we can't help but ask, "Are we there yet?"

Body

Are we there yet? is the question we all want answered (4-6).

In Daniel 12:4 Daniel is told to take the scroll in which he has recorded the prophecies roll it up and place a seal on it. We often think of a seal as being something that conceals and it certainly can, but here I think the seal has much more to do with a guarantee. The idea here is that Daniel is told that the events that have been foretold are guaranteed. Daniel can count on the outcomes. When we get to the end we will realize the significance of this guarantee.

We all want answers about the future.

In verse 4 we see the description of "many will go here and there to increase knowledge." The reality is that many want to know God's plan. We want to understand the details. We have a great advantage of being able to look backward across 2500 years and see how many of Daniel's prophecies have come to pass. But as we do so, we must do so with humility. You see, there are still events left to be fulfilled but the exact details are unknown. Sure we can speculate, but we must be willing to admit that we are speculating. I think that one of the hardest things for any of us to do is to admit that there are things we don't know. We want to increase in knowledge but in reality, there are things we just don't know.

One of the hardest calls to faith is the call to trust that God has given a sufficient answer.

Daniel's vision includes angelic messengers who ask the question "how long?" Why are they asking the question? The text doesn't tell us but I suspect they are voicing the question that is already on Daniel's mind. When is God's plan going to come about? When will this gentile ruler come to power, when will God step in and deliver His people? When are all these amazing events going to occur? How long will the suffering last? We will see an answer, although this answer is not all that clear. What I am reminded of is times when I have been teaching students and my students have asked me for a hint in solving a particular problem.

Image: Teaching students to problem solve: trust that I have given you a meaningful hint.

I used to teach an advanced math course at the university on Number Theory. In this course, we started from very basic principles. For example, every number can be factored into the product of prime numbers. From these basic principles, we built an entire theoretical framework to explain the fundamental properties of numbers. I enjoyed teaching the course but what made the course truly unique was that I never stood in front of the class and did math. Instead, I took a careful collection of sequenced problems that once completed built the entire theoretical framework. Students would come into class and solve these problems together until they had the entire framework. On many occasions, students would get stuck and ask me for a hint on how to solve a problem. I would give my hint and often they would immediately ask for another hint. The problem was that if I gave them another hint I would be solving the problem for them so my response would be. Just trust that I have given you enough information to solve the problem. If I give you any more I will rob you of the opportunity to grow through this process.

I think this is how life works. We have some information, we have the sufficiency of Scripture.

Deuteronomy 29:29 states

"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law."^[1]

Speaking of this text, John McArthur writes

God has not revealed all that could be disclosed from His infinite mind. What He has unveiled stands sufficient for salvation, maturation in the faith, and glorifying God by obedience to His Word. While there are secret things unknown, believers will be held accountable to obey only what they do know accented by the divine threat of judgment for continued sinful disobedience.^[2]

Could God tell you more about the future? Yes but he does not. Why? I don't know. Perhaps it is because we need to focus on living for God in the present. We must trust that what God has given us is enough. An answer to the question of when comes in later verses but this answer really doesn't tell us much. So, my conclusion. We don't need to know when in any more detail than what we have.

Image: There are lots of people who think they have when all figured out. Don't waste your energy and time on things that are not for you to know!!!!

I have received and heard about some wacky emails claiming to have solved the math and able to give the exact date of the rapture. I will tell you my opinion. That is a whole lot of effort aimed at something that really doesn't matter. Wouldn't your time be better spent in prayer and fellowship with your God? Yes, we should be eager for the culmination of God's plan but we also must be content with where God has us know.

2 Timothy 4:8 states

"Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."^[3]

We are allowed to long for the day when we are with Jesus but don't let you longing impede the actions you are called to take today.

MTR: Evaluate yourself, have you struck a balance of eager contentment?

I have to admit, I really like verses 7 and 8 because I relate to it so well. In verse 7, the man clothed in linen lifts both hands in a solemn oath and states that it will be a time, times, and a half time. In the first half of verse 8 Daniel thinks what we all probably think right now, "yeah, um, I don't understand." It reminds me

But young children never understand the answer we still have three and a half hours left (7-8a).

When I am over at Jessica and Richard's house one of the things I enjoy is telling Kepler that we will do something in 15 minutes. He will come up and say "Can we go outside and play on the swings?" I will respond, maybe in 15 minutes. less than a minute later Kepler comes back "has it been 15 minutes?" He has no real concept of time and that is okay he doesn't need to be bound by the clock at this point in his life. But it is such a good reminder to me that

God's answers do not always make sense to our limited minds.

Scholars believe that the answer Daniel receives is that these things will take place after 3.5 years. That is, during the tribulation, Israel will enjoy relative peace for 3.5 years but then after 3.5 years everything will fall apart and there will be 3.5 years of turmoil before God steps in. I agree with these scholars but I will tell you, I hold my view hear very lightly. I simply don't understand everything and that is okay. I realize that God is on a different level than I am and so my understanding of God's timing may be wrong.

What I want to emphasize today is that

There is plenty that we simply do not understand.

This does not mean that all pursuits of understanding are bad, but it does mean we need to be humble. Let me expand this just a little. There are things in theology that we don't understand and that is okay. I don't want you to give up on knowing God better but I also don't want you to expect to fully understand God.

I am the sort of person that loves theory and speculation so I often remind myself of 1 Timothy 1:3-7.

3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.^[4]

Does this mean that you cannot try to think carefully about God and His plan? No, but it does demand that you do so with great care and humility. You see, our pursuit of theological knowledge must have spiritual value and be oriented with the goal of love.

Let me put it another way. You are allowed to have a view on controversial theological points but your view needs to be oriented toward love. For example, you can have an eschatological view. In fact, I would encourage you to have such a view but your view must be one of love and must be used to show love to others.

Ultimately, we need to trust God with the unknown and be okay with that. For Daniel the unknown was timing and it reminds me of a key question that we all should ask ourselves.

MTR: Ask yourself, am I willing to wait even if I don't understand God's timing?

Throughout the book of Daniel we have seen Daniel hit homerun after homerun. Confronted with compromise back in Daniel 1 Daniel hits the ball out of the park. When asked to interpret a dream again the pitch is smashed out of the park. The lions den becomes yet another homerun. And here in verse 8 I see a final homerun. Daniel admits he does not understand the timing so instead of picking apart asking for more details on the timing, Daniel asks about the destination. We are sitting in the van, I have asked my dad how much longer. "Three and a half hours more" he says. Having no idea what that actually means I proclaim my trust by simply asking "Dad, tell me more about our destination."

You see, there is so much we don't understand.

Nevertheless, we are capable of being excited for the destination (9-11).

No matter what happens, we are going to reach the destination.

Verse 9 states "He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end." The idea here is that the seal has been placed on the document meaning it is guaranteed. Daniel, you can relax knowing that God is in control. No matter what, it is going to be worth it. When I read these words I read them as an incredibly loving father responding to the child. Go ahead and close your eyes son, take a nap, we have been driving for a while and we have a while left to go. But don't worry, I will get us there, and when we get there it will be worth it!

We are assured that the destination is worth the wait.

We are reminded that the destination involves the purification of many. I know my sins and I am learning to hate my sins. So often Romans 7:15 rings true in my ears " I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.^[5]. There is a time coming when God will keep me from sin and I will never again do that which I hate! I will be spotless and refined. Yes, there are those who will reject God completely and find themselves separate from God but I will be among those who are refined and purified.

Then in verse 11 yet some more numbers are given. I will tell you, the numbers are hard. 3.5 years is less than 1290 days. Scholars have speculated that following the 3.5 years that brings about the end of the tribulation there will be a period of clean-up and setup for the millennial kingdom. This makes sense to me, but honestly, I don't care a whole lot. What I care about is the destination, the purity that will mark the end. I trust the driver and I trust the destination. So, I guess I might as well enjoy the journey.

Image: When you know the destination is assured you can enjoy the journey.

Growing up on our road trips we would play road trip games. Trying to go through the alphabet looking at signs, playing a card game, etc. We enjoyed the games because it helped pass the time. We knew where we were going and we trusted we would get there. so why not enjoy the ride?

MTR: Make sure that you have taken time to study the destination so you can properly enjoy the journey.

And so we dare to wait in eager anticipation of God's final destination for us (13).

Daniel did not live to see the prophecies fulfilled but he was promised that he would be resurrected to see their fulfillment. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior then your final destination is set and so you can afford to eagerly wait in anticipation.

MTR: Dare to Wait.

1. ↑ NIV
2. ↑ McArthur Study Bible
3. ↑ NIV
4. ↑ NIV
5. ↑ NIV