Daniel 12 Dare to Wait
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?
But young children never understand the answer we still have three hours left (7-8a).
God's answers do not always make sense to our limited minds.
There is plenty that we simply do not understand.
Image: Clocks and kids - time is so hard to understand.
MTR: Ask yourself, am I willing to wait even if I don't understand God's timing?
Nevertheless, we are capable of being excited for the destination (9-11).
No matter what happens, we are going to reach the destination.
We are assured that the destination is worth the wait.
Image: When you know the destination is assured you can enjoy the journey.
Road trip games.
