The Space Between (Daniel 12:1–13)

When I started working for our church in 1998, I came to the position with zero experience with computers. I knew nothing about computers but I wanted to learn. There was an elder there are the time who had extensive computing knowledge, who started instructing me. I had questions about everything and was deathly scared that I would do something that might rip a hole in the space-time continuum.

One day, as I was asking again whether it was okay for me to do something that I wanted to do, he said to me, “Don’t be afraid to experiment. Just do it. There’s nothing you can do that we can’t fix afterwards.” I’ve found that advice to be true over the years: I’ve rarely encountered something that I can’t fix.

The fixit attitude abounds in the culture in which we live. We want quick fixes for everything. Some of the most popular YouTube channels and Instagram accounts are for life hacks, in which the channel or account holder demonstrates a strategy or technique to make your life more manageable—to fix it. We’d like to believe that everything is fixable.

Indeed, many things in life are fixable. If you don’t like your teeth, an orthodontist can fix them. If you don’t like something about your appearance, cosmetic surgery can come to the rescue. If you don’t like your job, there is probably an opportunity somewhere out there that can fix your frustration.

In a Bob the Builder world, anything can be fixed. In the real world, things are not so easy. Just ask the emergency room doctor closest to the latest mass school shooting. Or the surgeon who delivers the heart-breaking news that the condition is inoperable. Sometimes, despite our best efforts and our cheeriest optimism, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men simply cannot put Humpty together again.

There are certain passages in the Bible that remind us of this truth—texts that show us that this world cannot always be easily fixed. Sometimes, re-creation is the only hope for a broken world. Daniel 12 points us to that truth. The messenger angel had delivered news of great trouble in chapter 11. Chapter 12 continues that theme as the angel tells Daniel that he shouldn’t expect things to be fixed—but there is hope in a new creation.

The chapter opens (vv. 1–2) and closes (v. 13) with reference to the final resurrection, which promises to usher God’s people into the fullness of his new creation. But it also provides Daniel with some crucial lessons for what it is like to live between the prophecy and the resurrection. As we consider the text carefully, we find at least four realities of living in the space between.

A Time of Waiting and Warring

First, the space between is a time of waiting and warring:

At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt….

 

But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.

(Daniel 12:1–2, 13)

The vision and the words of chapter 12 are bookended with references to the resurrection at the end of time. First, the angel tells of the general resurrection at the end of time before (v. 2) before assuring Daniel that he will likewise partake in this resurrection (v. 13). But there is also reference here to the war that will persist in the space between Daniel’s time and the future resurrection.

“At that time” (v. 1) speaks, as we saw previously, of the time of opposition by Antiochus IV Epiphanes during the intertestamental period. This time of unprecedented trouble for God’s people—hyperbolically, “a time of trouble such as has never been since there was a nation till that time”—was, as we saw in chapter 10, described in terms of spiritual warfare. God’s faithful people were promised that they would be “delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.”

This did not mean that every faithful Yahweh-follower would escape death, but that death would not be the end for them. Verse 2 promises a resurrection “to everlasting life” to all those whose names are in the book. Death would prove to be a temporary setback for God’s faithful people, which would usher them into eternal victory at the resurrection.

Verse 13 promises the same for Daniel: “But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.” He would not live to see “the end” of these prophecies. He would succumb to the “rest” of death but, since his name was in the book, he would also “stand” in resurrection.

These verses show us that the space between—the time in which we live—is a time of waiting (for the resurrection) as we war against the spiritual forces in heavenly places.

God’s faithful people, whose names are all recorded in his book, are promised eternal glory. As 1 Corinthians 15 makes clear, our resurrection is secured because Christ rose from the dead. Having died in the place of the sinners he came to save, he proved that God had accepted his sacrifice when he triumphed over death in his resurrection. And his resurrection was the firstfruits of the resurrection of all his people at the end of time.

But his people are not promised a life of ease prior to that resurrection. In fact, things for God’s people may, at times, get so bad that only one of Michael’s calibre will be able to stand in the fight for them. We fool ourselves if we believe that we can go it alone in the Christian life.

Too many Christians think that they can go it alone in their Christian walk. They never seem to need the fellowship of other Christians. They never seem to need prayer for any pressing needs in their lives. Everything is always upbeat and rosy. That is not a healthy outlook on the Christian walk. We live in a reality in which the devil and his forces wage war against our souls. He desperately wants to destroy Christians and Christian churches. We must realise the reality of the war around us and be prepared to fight, trusting that God will fight at our side.

Christians must fight to remain faithful in their marriages. Christians must right to remain fervent in their walk with the Lord. Christians must fight to remain meaningful, contributing members to their local church. In our fallenness, we tend to cool in our affections and obedience to the Lord. If we do not fight, we may soon fall.

But as we fight, we must bear in mind that, while the fight is real, the outcome is certain. Every Christian is promised a resurrection to eternal life. In the resurrection, every form of spiritual warfare will be a distant memory, for Christ will have crushed every enemy underneath his feet. In the space between, we wage war daily against the world, the flesh, and the devil—but we do so as we wait for the promise of future resurrection.

A Time of Wisdom and Witness

Second, the space between is a time of wisdom and witness. After addressing the resurrection, Daniel writes, “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. 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” (Daniel 12:3–4).

The language here is deliberately poetic because the reality it describes is majestic. The messenger uses the parallelism common in Hebrew literature to state a truth and then repeat the truth in a slightly different way.

He addresses, first, “those who are wise.” Wisdom, in this context, is contrasted not with folly but with wickedness (v. 10). Wisdom, therefore, as in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, is more of an ethical than an intellectual category. The wise are those who guard true worship and devotion to God. During the opposition of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, when the temple had been desecrated and the sacrifices halted, it took special devotion to God and his word to remain “wise.”

The promise for the “wise” is that they “shall shine like the brightness of the sky above.” This is a poetic way, on the back of the promise of resurrection, of saying that the wise will inherit the kingdom of God. The glory that awaits God’s people in his eternal kingdom, which will be fully realised at the resurrection, will surpass anything that we can comprehend. The interpreting angel can only describe this glory as the brightness of the sky on a particularly clear day. No other metaphor known to Daniel could quite capture it.

The angel then repeats the blessing in the second part of the verse, employing slightly different terminology. The “wise” in the first part of the verse are now described as “those who turn many to righteousness.” Wisdom is displayed not only in worshipping and obeying God with full fidelity but also in witnessing of God’s glory to others. When the temple was desecrated and the sacrifices halted, those who maintained their fidelity to God were viciously opposed. A worshipper might easily be tempted to waver in his or her faithfulness. The wise would not only remain faithful themselves but would urge others to faithfulness, pointing them to the ultimate worth of God, who deserved to be worshipped even in the face of hostility.

These wise witnesses would shine “like the stars forever and ever.” Their light would not be extinguished, even in death. While the unrighteous would be remembered with “shame and everlasting contempt” (v. 2), the righteous would shine like bright stars for all eternity.

Calvin summarises the thrust of this verse when he writes, “The sons of God who, being entirely devoted to God and ruled by the spirit of prudence, point out the way of life to others, shall not only be saved themselves, but shall possess surpassing glory far beyond anything which exists in this world.”

The interpreting angel concludes his words in v. 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.”

The angel commanded Daniel to “shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.” Centuries later, an angel commanded the apostle John, who had just received the vision we know as Revelation, to “not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near” (Revelation 22:10). In John’s case, the fulfilment of the prophecy was imminent—it would happen within a few short years—and so there was no need to seal the words. The fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy, on the other hand—specifically, “the book of truth” in chapter 11 (10:21)—lay three hundred years in his future. He was therefore commanded to seal the book because, unlike Revelation, it was for a generation in his distant future. At “the time of the end”—i.e. the time when the prophecies were being fulfilled—God’s faithful people would read and understand, but Daniel and his contemporaries must not spend time trying to figure out the full prophetic timeline.

At “the time of the end … many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” “Run to and fro” is used metaphorically here of those at “the time of the end” who would thoroughly investigate the prophecy to understand its meaning. As they gave themselves to studying the prophecy, their “knowledge” would “increase.” The meaning of the prophecy would not always remain obscure but the faithful would understand God’s meaning as they searched the Scriptures.

What does this verse tell us about living in the space between? It shows us that, while we live in this world, awaiting the resurrection of our bodies, we have the responsibility to pursue wisdom. We do this by searching the Scriptures and seeking to understand God’s will for his people. Wisdom is displayed in fidelity to God in life and worship, and in willingness to witness of his greatness to those who need to embrace similar wisdom.

As Christians, we are responsible before God to search the Scriptures so that we might know how to live and so that we might point others to the truth. Scripture is not given primarily to satisfy prophetic curiosity, or to answer questions it was never intended to address. Scripture was given to show Christians how to live and how to witness to God’s truth in a culture that opposes truth.

As Christians, we need to be wise to the challenges of our day and know how to answer those challenges biblically. What are the pressing worldview issues that confront you at work, at school, or in your family and friends circle? Do you know how to answer those questions from Scripture—not with pithy but meaningless sayings but with theological robustness?

For example, when someone asks you your opinion on any number of LGBTQI+ issues, it is not helpful to answer with, “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!” That may raise a chuckle in church circles, but you need a far more robust answer than that when you’re addressing a culture opposed to God’s truth. If you are going to live wisely in this world and witness to God’s truth, you need prayerfully “run to and fro” through the Scriptures, searching for God’s answers to our culture’s pressing questions, and finding wisdom to live faithfully for Christ.

A Time of Questioning and Confusion

Third, the space between is a time of questioning and confusion:

Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream. And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?” And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished. 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.”

(Daniel 12:5–9)

These verses focus on two great questions, the first asked by an unnamed speaker (“How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?”) and the second asked by Daniel himself (“What shall be the outcome of these things?”). Together, they reveal that there was still some confusion (“I heard, but I did not understand”), leading to clarifying questions, after receiving the vision.

Daniel records that, as the vision continued to unfold, he saw “two others,” one on either “bank of the stream.” The “stream” refers to the Tigris River, which was the setting for the larger vision (see 10:4). We don’t know who these two individuals were or who the voice was that spoke. We might assume that it was one of the individuals (presumably angels) who addressed “the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream.” The “man clothed in linen” was the first man that Daniel saw in 10:4–9.

The questioner posed a simple question: “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?” The voice did not fully understand the vision and sought clarity. From the answer that is given, “these wonders” evidently refers particularly to the open hostility of Antiochus IV Epiphanes to the Jews in Jerusalem. The man’s answer—“a time, times, and half a time”—suggests a period of roughly three-and-a-half years, which is the time frame given in 8:14 for the cessation of temple sacrifices during Antiochus IV Epiphanes’s persecution. A similar time frame for the cessation of the sacrifices is given in v. 11. This period would be one of “shattering of the power of the holy people.” That is, it would be a time when the power of God’s people would be entirely stripped from them. The man in linen here reiterated the great affliction that would befall God’s people in this time.

This answer came, via the man in linen, from the mouth of God himself and could therefore be trusted. Daniel, however “heard, but … did not understand.” This is hardly surprising, because it concerned events in his distant future. Still, not understanding, he asked for clarity: “O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?” He was confused, so he questioned. The man simply responded: “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.” It was not necessary to Daniel to understand all the minutia of the prophecy because he would not live through it. It would become necessary for those in “the time of the end” to understand it and be encouraged by it.

Despite the fact that this word came from the Lord, both Daniel and unidentified speaker did not fully grasp its significance. Both were confused. Both asked questions. Both lived, as we do, in the space between, where confusion frequently reigns and clarification is often required.

The Bible does not tell us a great deal about our future. It does tell us that God deeply loves his church and is committed to building his church. It does tell us that God will sustain us until the time of future resurrection when every affliction will be a thing of the past. But with such great assurances of love and promises of eternal blessedness, life can sure be confusing in the present.

If God loves me so much, why do I have to live month to month, wondering about how I’m going to afford next month’s petrol and groceries, how I’m going to afford school and university for three kids, or how I’m going to cover medical expenses through winter when my medical savings has been depleted by the end of April? If God loves me, why has he not provided the job that I have worked so hard to apply for? If God loves me, why has he not answered the prayer of my heart for a spouse or for children? If God loves me, why has he not answered my prayer for relational restoration? If God loves our church, why does he not simply remove every semblance of relational conflict?

Life can be confusing, and our confusion should lead to questions. We may get the answer to some of those questions (like the first question in the text), or we may be told to simply trust God (like the second question in the text), but asking questions is the right thing to do when you are confused.

God’s church should be an environment in which questions can be freely asked. In too many churches, people are hesitant to ask the questions that weigh them down because they don’t know how they will be received. If I struggle with same sex attraction, can I openly ask questions about it in the church, or do I have to hide it because it is such a shameful thing? If I struggle to understand the justice of eternal punishment, is there space for me to ask that question or will I simply be told to shut up and believe what the Bible says? Can I be open with my struggle with assurance or my questions about God’s goodness?

No clarifying question is off limits to God and clarifying questions ought to be welcomed in the church of God. The community of faith is precisely the place where you should be able to wrestle with your questions about faith and life and culture and theology.

A Time of Perseverance and Promise

Fourth, and finally, the space between is a time of perseverance and promise. Having told Daniel to go his way, the man in linen continued:

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. And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.  Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days.

(Daniel 12:10–12)

The man in linen continued to press home the affliction that God’s people would face. If it seems that these chapters are harping on the affliction, it is only because God’s people so frequently need to be reminded of that reality and the grace that is available in Christ to help us persevere. Calvin states it with characteristic forthrightness:

We know … how tender and weak our minds naturally are, for as soon as any cause for fear arises, before it comes to blows, we fall down lifeless through terror. As, therefore, our natural imbecility is so great, we necessarily require many stimulants to patience, and to urge us to contend with earnestness, and never to yield to any temptations.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes would bring great affliction to God’s people in Jerusalem. There would be two responses to the affliction. The wise “shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined” while “the wicked shall act wickedly.”

Affliction works differently in the lives of believers and unbelievers. Those who are wise to God’s truth understand that affliction is an opportunity for growth. As wheat is separated from the chaff, the wise are refined through affliction. As clothes are whitened by the launderer, the wise are cleansed through affliction. As precious metal is separated from dross in the fire, the wise are purified through affliction.

The wicked, on the other hand, respond very differently: “The wicked shall act wickedly” because “none of the wicked shall understand.” The wicked do not understand God’s design in affliction and it simply hardens their heart in their wickedness. God does not state the folly of the wicked to give the wise cause to rejoice over the downfall of the wicked. His purpose is to warn the wise from following the wicked in their wicked folly. Calvin again hits the nail on the head: “Whenever we see the impious rushing furiously on to their destruction, while God is admonishing them that their blindness proceeds from Satan, and that they are given over to a reprobate mind, are we not doubly mad if we willingly follow them?”

We should understand from this that suffering is not automatically redemptive. Suffering can be either redemptive orcondemning, depending on the way you approach it. If you approach suffering with wisdom, searching the Scriptures and submitting to Christ in deep trust, it can prove redemptive. If you lack deep-rooted trust in Christ in your suffering, it may well harden you. The wise settle in their hearts long before suffering strikes that Christ is sovereign and can be trusted even if affliction arises.

Verses 11–12 close with some enigmatic numbers that have caused all sorts of speculation. While these numbers have invited a variety of interesting interpretations, we must remember that opening words of chapter 12 (“at that time”) have established the context as having to do with the opposition of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The reference to 1,290 days seems to be a more precise elaboration of the “time, times, and half a time” of v. 7. It is historically verifiable that the cessation of the sacrificial system following the desecration of the temple lasted roughly three-and-a-half years. But what is meant by 1,335 days—45 days beyond the 1,290 days?

It may be impossible to say with absolute certainty, but there are hints in the text that might help us to understand this time frame. Clearly, the 1,290 days would be days of darkness and opposition and hopelessness. Clearly, those who persist for the additional 45 days will find a blessing at the end of them. I suspect that the blessing would come in the form of the good news of Antiochus IV Epiphanes’s death.

One more, brief, history lesson is necessary at this point. We are told in 11:44–45 that Antiochus IV Epiphanes would receive “news” from “the east and the north,” which would “alarm” him. This happened after he had desecrated the temple in Jerusalem. He received word that the Parthians were threatening his empire in the east. He set out on an expedition to deal with this rebellion. He left some military generals in Jerusalem to ensure that the temple worship did not resume, but he  underestimated the fighting spirit of the Maccabean family and followers, however, who fought off the generals he had left in Jerusalem and cleansed and rededicated the temple. When he heard that temple worship had resumed, he sent threats back to Jerusalem of how he intended to deal with the rebels when he returned from the east. He never returned, however. Ultimately, he came “to his end, with none to help him” (11:45). He died of an unknown illness before he returned from his eastern campaign.

I suspect that the addition 45 days were the days of fearful anticipation of the consequences of the Maccabean revolt, until news eventually arrived that Antiochus IV Epiphanes was dead. Great and blessed rejoicing broke out with that news.

We learn from these verses that the space between was a time in which God’s people needed to persevere, as they held to his promises. Yahweh’s faithful followers had done their job. They had persevered in their affliction, remained loyal to him, and had managed to overthrow the enemy forces in Jerusalem and re-establish temple worship. But even as they waited for the repercussions of their revolt, they needed to hold onto the promise of v. 1: “At that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.” They needed to continue persevering even as they clung firmly to God’s promises. We live in a similar space.

God calls his people to faithfully persevere as they trust his promises. The followers of John Calvin famously summarised his teaching on salvation under the acronym TULIP. The P in TULIP stands for “perseverance of the saints.” Some Reformed Christians prefer to talk about the “preservation of the saints,” highlighting that it is God’s grace that preserves us to the end. Really, the two terms—perseverance and preservation—work hand in glove.

It certainly is God’s preserving grace that keeps us, but that preserving grace enables our perseverance in the face of great trial. We persevere because of God’s promises. He promises to keep us to the end, which enables our perseverance. Every Christian has God’s promise that he will keep them to the end. He keeps his people secure in his eternally safe hands (John 10:28–29). Nothing in life or death can separate God’s people from his love (Romans 8:35–39). He will glorify every person he justifies (Romans 8:28–30). We have his promise.

But embracing that promise places upon us the responsibility to persevere. We keep reminding ourselves of the great truths of the gospel precisely because we believe his promise to keep us. Christians persevere. Christians do not stop believing the gospel. Christians do not stop pursuing holiness. Christians do not stop growing in their knowledge of God. His promises enable our perseverance.

What sort of promises do we need to remember to empower our perseverance? Consider three from this text.

First, God promised to be with his people. They would not be alone in their affliction. Michael would stand for them (v. 1). God would fight for them and give them everything they needed to persevere in their affliction.

We have the same promise in our affliction. God is with us as we walk the road of affliction—even the valley of the shadow of death itself (Psalm 23:4). God similarly promised his people through Isaiah, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you” (Isaiah 43:2). The ultimate fulfilment of God with us, of course, is Emmanuel himself! Jesus became flesh and experienced the trials we experience so that he could promise to be with us in our trials. “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He walked this life of trial to the bitter end of death to empower our perseverance in trial.

Second, God promised to transform his people. “Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined” (v. 10). He would work in them to ensure that their affliction worked out for their transforming good. Affliction would build them, not destroy them. They could therefore persevere in their affliction, trusting that God was working his plan in them.

We are similarly promised that every affliction we face works to the end of our Christlikeness (Romans 8:28–30). We can trust God in affliction and persevere in faithfulness to him because he promises that every trial makes us more like Christ.

Third—and bringing this full circle—God promised to persevere his people. “You shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days” (v. 13). God would keep Daniel and promised that a day of resurrection and final reward awaited him.

Once more, every Christian has this promise. God will keep us and present us perfect before him at that final day. That promise should empower our perseverance in the space between.

These promises were intended to empower perseverance in God’s people. Calvin’s prayer at the end of his lecture on this chapter captures the heart of it.

Grant, Almighty God, since you propose to us no other end than that of constant warfare during our own life, and subject us to many cares until we arrive at the goal of this temporary racecourse: Grant, I pray, that we may never grow fatigued. May we ever be armed and equipped for battle, and whatever the trials by which you prove us, may we never be found deficient. May we always aspire toward heaven with upright souls, and strive with all our endeavours to attain that blessed rest which is laid up for us in heaven, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

May God grant us the same.

AMEN