The ending of history is going to be the Antichrist crushing the holy people. And then they will become genuinely holy. Their sin will be so deep, their destruction so utter, that they will look to their covenant-keeping God, who will be faithful to redeem them through the Messiah.
There will be a glorious, marvelous salvation. I'm Phil Johnson, your host. You may remember a TV show called Early Edition. The main character found a newspaper on his doorstep each morning that actually offered tomorrow's headlines. Well, imagine if you really knew tomorrow's news, how would that change the way you do things today?
The way you schedule your time, the way you spend your energies, the way you spend your money? Well, as you've been seeing in John MacArthur's study, The Future of Israel, you can look into the future. And when you do, you'll see the God who controls the future and who will ultimately return to judge the world.
That's a great motivation for you to proclaim the gospel while there's still time. And so, with a motivating message on prophecies from the book of Daniel, here is John MacArthur. Now in this final section, the Lord deals with Daniel and also with a couple of angels who express some questions about the details of what is coming to pass. Even after all of the information of the book, there is still much mystery.
But all of this revelation has managed to pique their interest, and they want more. And so, in the closing section from verse 4 to 13, the Lord clarifies some final features. And even after the clarification leaves an abundant mystery for the future. Now let's see these final words, and we'll take them just as they flow in the text and move right on through. First of all, the content sealed.
Secondly, the chronology set, then the confusion stated, the cleansing secured, and the commendation sworn. First, the content sealed, the content sealed, verse 4. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end.
We can stop there for the moment. Now, the angel says to him, the vision that began in chapter 10, or the revelation that began in chapter 10, the revelation of the history of Israel from Daniel's time to the time of the Antichrist. All of that sweeping revelation is over. I've given you the final words of this last revelation. Now, roll up the scroll and shut it. That's all. That's the end. Seal it until the time of the end.
Now that is a very specific period of time. Let me just work up to that. The verse begins, shut up the words. Close up the words. And what really is being said here is the idea of preservation. Don't let this thing get away.
Shut it up. Preserve it. Seal it. Make it secure.
And it could even apply with an authenticating stamp so people treat it with seriousness. Seal it up so that it is secure and preserve it. Preserve it till when? The time of the end. Preserve it to the time of the end. Now the word book there, seal the book, has reference to written material.
The word seper in the Hebrew usually refers to a rather substantial material, that is in length, a large amount of material. So the instruction from this glorious angel who's given him the revelation is now to seal it up and preserve it for the time of the end. Now what does he mean by this? Well, what he is saying is a reference, mark this, to the time of the great tribulation. It is best to interpret the phrase the time of the end as a reference to the tribulation time.
It is not a new term. It is a term used in chapter 11 verse 35. Over in verse 40 of 11 it says, And at the time of the end, the king of the south shall push and the king of the north. And there we're into the battles of the tribulation. So it is best to see the time of the end as a reference to the period of the tribulation. Now what is it saying?
Now mark this now. You preserve that book, seal it up until the time of the great tribulation. Now the sealing does not mean the message is hidden. It only means that it is safely preserved for those who come later, especially those in the great tribulation. Now we're not in the great tribulation yet and we have, as it were, unrolled the scroll of Daniel and we are reading it. And we understand it better than Daniel did because we have all of the intervening history and because we have the edition of the book of Revelation and the commentary of our Lord in Matthew 24 and 25 in which he comments on the book of Daniel. So we have a lot more understanding, but the fullest understanding of Daniel will not come until the great tribulation.
That's a very important truth. During the time of the tribulation, I believe the book of Daniel will be reopened by the people of God and studied all over again and they'll understand it as clearly as if they were reading the daily newspaper because all of the events will come to pass. In fact, we talked last time about how is it that so many people are going to be saved. It says an innumerable number of Gentiles. It says all Israel will be saved.
Well what is going to be the instrumentation? Well certainly the ministry of the 144,000. But I also believe that added to that, the book of Daniel and also no doubt the book of Revelation will be two books that the world will focus on because they will chronicle blow by blow, detail by detail every single event occurring in the tribulation. So Daniel, to begin with, just recognize this. You can't fully understand it. Preserve it until the last time, the time of the tribulation when it will be able to be fully understood. Now let's go to the rest of verse 4. At that time, many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. Now this is a most interesting phrase, been interpreted many ways. Let me give you what is the basic interpretation, the words, the context that I think makes real sense.
It is not talking about the increase of scientific knowledge primarily, although that may be an illusion or an implication that could be drawn. What it is talking about is this. Many people in the tribulation, the time of the end, are going to run to and fro trying to find out answers to what's going on. And they're going to find the book of Daniel and at that point their knowledge will be increased. It is used many times in the Old Testament of a person in search of information, chasing and running and looking for answers.
And I really think that's what it is here. In Jeremiah 5, 1, you have the same word. It is the word shoot in the Hebrew. It's palel form for those of you who are Hebrew students. Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in its broad places if you can find a man, if there be any that executeth justice that seeketh the truth and I will pardon. In other words, run around and try to find somebody.
That seems to be its use. And I believe that when the time of the end comes upon the world, the Jews are going to run around and try to find an answer. Why is this happening? Why is this holocaust again upon us? Why are all these disasters coming?
Why are these events taking place? Painstakingly they will study to find the answers and I believe when they come to the unrolling of the scroll of Daniel, knowledge will be increased. They'll get their answers.
They'll understand. Leon Wood in his extremely helpful commentary gives us the paraphrase of the thought in these terms. He says, In other words, Daniel has to preserve his book so that people of all time from his day until the end may have knowledge of these events and the most clear understanding will come to those who are living through it.
You know what's especially wonderful about that? Go backwards to verse 3. And they that be wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.
You know something? Daniel will be used by God to turn many to righteousness centuries, millennia after he's dead because he was the human author of this book which will give them answers in the time of the tribulation. The angel is then saying to Daniel, look, the content is sealed, Daniel. As far as the immediate future is concerned, any attempt to fully understand will be impossible, but in the end it'll all become clear.
Now, the obvious question is this. When is this going to happen? When is the end? When is everybody going to read it and understand?
When is it going to happen? Now, I know Daniel wanted to ask that question because he asked it similarly later in the chapter, but before Daniel can ask that question, two others butt in and they ask it. You know who they are? Two angels. That's right. Verse 5. We go from the content sealed to the chronology set. The chronology is here set.
When is it going to happen? I'll give you the chronology. Then I, Daniel, looked and behold, there stood two others, two other whats. Well, what was he talking to or who? An angel. Two other angels. Two other angels appeared. One on this side of the bank of the river and the other on that side of the bank of the river. Now, he was near, according to chapter 10, verse 4, the river Hiddekel, which is another name for the Tigris.
This is where he was when the whole thing began. And all of a sudden, he looks and on either side of the river, he sees two other angels, other than the glorious angel to whom he has been speaking. Now, why do these two appear? Why two angels? Well, most Bible commentators feel that God, when he wanted to confirm some great revelation, confirmed it in the mouth of two witnesses. And so they are there as witnessing the proclamation that's about to be made. Now, again we see angelic involvement in the proclamation and execution of the plan of God.
This to me is one of the most fascinating studies. It's thrilling to see how the angels are involved. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not there.
They're involved in the plan of God, carrying it out. And here they appear, and in verse 6, watch what happens, and one said to the man clothed in linen...uh-oh, somebody else appears...who was above the waters of the river. Now there's one on one side, one on the other, and a man clothed in linen in the middle, on top of the river, over the river, up in the sky.
And what did one say? How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? Want to know something? The angels are just as curious as Daniel.
Apparently they don't have the whole thing either. In fact, if you remember the words of Jesus when they said to him, you know, when shall these things be? And he made the statement that no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, not even the Son of Man and his humiliation, but only the Father. There's mystery with them, and they're curious. In fact, in 1 Peter 1, it says, these things the angels desired to look into.
They're just as fascinated by the prophecies as we are, and they beat Daniel to the punch. So he sees a man clothed in linen over the top of the river. He sees an angel on either side of the river, and one of the angels, perhaps the one nearest to him whose voice he could hear, says to the man clothed in linen over the middle of the river, how long is it going to be till the end of these wonders? Now who is the man clothed in linen? Well, in order to know that, you go back to chapter 10, verse 5, when the whole thing began. He says, When I was there on the twentieth day of the first month by the side of the great river, I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen. Now who is this man clothed in linen?
Well, his loins are girded with the fine gold of Uphaz. His body was like the barrel, and his face like the appearance of lightning, and his eyes like lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet in color like polished bronze, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude or the voice of a sea. And that description is almost an identical parallel of the description of the Lord Jesus Christ in the first chapter of Revelation.
You can just take it step by step. The man clothed in fine linen, as we showed you in that text at that time, was none other than the pre-incarnate Christ. It is a Christophany, a theophany, the uncreated Christ appearing in pre-incarnate manner. And he is clothed in linen because linen was the garment of the priesthood, and white linen was the symbol of holiness and purity. And so here he appears again, and isn't it marvelous that in the conclusion of Daniel's life as he approaches ninety years of age, and the conclusion of all of his revelations and prophecies, his last and final vision is a vision of the one who is to come to bring it all to pass.
What a glorious thing. And so he sees this majestic, marvelous man clothed in linen. And you can be sure that all of those things that were true of his appearance in chapter 10 are equally true of his appearance again in chapter 12. And the angels, you see, ask him for the information. And that indicates to me that this is in fact God, the second person of the Trinity, for He has information angels do not have. And the angels are seen in subordinate places down on the edge of the river.
He is seen in the middle elevated. Now, the angels ask the question, how long is it going to be till the end of these wonders? When is the time of the end? Now what wonders? Well, the ones he's just been talking about, the wonders that are connected with the reign of Antichrist. They've just given him all of these things that Antichrist is going to do at the end of chapter 11 in this time of great tribulation or trouble in chapter 12, verse 1. How long is it going to be, now watch this phrase, to the end of these wonders? He's not talking about all the history from Daniel's time to Antichrist, but just the end of it, just the end of these things.
How long till the Antichrist is going to do these things? They want to know the duration of time. They want to know when it's going to come to pass. Well, why would the angels want to know that? Well, I think the angels are probably, even in Daniel's time, pretty sick of fighting the demons, and they just soon get it over with, don't you think? They must have gotten a little bit weary like those angels earlier in the book who had to constantly fight up in space to get the work of God done.
Michael's been defending the people of Israel for a long time, and they're just as anxious to see the redemption as you and I. How long is it going to be until the end, till all of these things come under the Antichrist and the great tribulation? How long will the time of trouble last? It kind of interests me that they were still asking this, even though chapter 7, verse 25 had given them a pretty good answer. You don't need to turn to it, but the Lord had told them there it was going to be three and a half years, and it was long in the future.
I think they probably knew that there was going to be three and a half years in a sense, but maybe they just needed an affirmation, or maybe they didn't really understand that He meant that literally. That's very hard for me to know, because He gives them the answer here that it's going to be three and a half years, and He'd already said that in 725. I don't know why the angels needed an answer, or maybe they asked a question already knowing the answer, but just to pose the opportunity. Tell us again, Lord, in that sense, how long is it going to be?
We really don't know. But the question had been answered in chapter 7, verse 25, when the vision there, it indicated to them three and a half years it was going to last, but nonetheless they ask it again. Verse 7 comes the answer. And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him who liveth forever. Now this is fascinating. Whenever a Jew wanted to make an oath, he raised his right hand.
And we do that, don't we? Go to court to testify, raise your right hand, promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. You raise your right hand, that's a sign of a swearing. And when you raise both hands, that's about as far as you can go. And that's an utter, absolute binding affirmation, and here the Lord puts up both hands and swears by him who lives forever.
Who's that? It's God. God who alone has immortality, 1 Timothy 6, 16. God alone lives forever and He swears by the everlasting God.
And what does He swear? That it shall be for a time, that's one, a time, times, that's two, plural, and a half, that's one plus two plus a half, three and a half. Three and a half years. How long is the Antichrist's reign of terror? How long is it going to be that the end of these wonders will exist?
Three and a half years. That's very explicit, people, very, very explicit. It's exactly what was said in chapter 7 verse 25, three and a half years. And then the Lord gives a purpose for the activity of Antichrist in verse 7.
Look at it. And when he shall have accomplished...what? What are those three and a half years to accomplish? The breaking up of the power of the holy people, all these things shall be ended. You know what the tribulation is to do? It's to utterly devastate the holy people.
Who are they? Who are the nations set apart unto God? Israel. The Antichrist is going to come and he is going to come to, it says literally, to break up the power or literally to shatter or dash to pieces the power of the Jews. Now we have to tell the people of Israel, bless them and love them, that it isn't going to get better, it's going to get a lot worse. And there is coming a future world ruler. They're going to put their faith in him.
They're going to put their trust in him. Daniel 9 says they're going to sign an allegiance with him for seven years, but in the middle of that seven years, at the beginning of the three and a half that ended, he is going to turn against them and he is going to devastate them and he is going to shatter them and he is going to dash them to pieces. He will break their power utterly and totally. He will bring such persecution as they have never conceived. He will bring a time of trouble like no other in the history of the world, it says in verse 1.
And you know what will come out of it? Instead of destroying the people of God, he will crush them to the point where they will be so broken and so lost and so devastated that they will look to their Messiah. And as Zechariah puts it, they'll look on him whom they've pierced and mourn for him as an only son. And they will accept the Lord Jesus Christ as King and Messiah and Savior. They will be so crushed, they'll have nowhere to go but to Christ. And it will take the Antichrist three and a half years to bring this crushing, this breaking up to pass. If you've wondered what the Tribulation is for, it is for the judgment of an evil earth, it is for the punishment of the nations, but in this part of the Revelation, the writer focuses by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit on what will happen to Israel. Now we know this three and a half year period is to come from the book of Revelation. It is repeated over and over again.
There's just no question about this. Chapter 11, it says there will come two witnesses who will preach and prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days. That's twelve hundred and sixty days. That is three and a half years on a thirty-day month basis, and that's the Jewish calendar.
So again, whether it's three and a half years or whether it's twelve hundred and sixty days, it's the same thing. You have it again in chapter 12 verse 6. The Lord is going to protect the remnant of believing Israel for twelve hundred and sixty days.
In verse 14 of chapter 12, they'll go into the wilderness and they'll be cared for for a time, times, and half a time. That's another way to say it, three and a half years, same idea. Chapter 13 verse 5 says, power will be given unto the antichrist forty and two months.
Forty-two months, that's three and a half years. So it just repeated in every possible way you could repeat it. The ending of history is going to be the antichrist crushing the holy people, and then they will become genuinely holy. Their sin will be so deep, their destruction so utter, that they will look to their covenant-keeping God, who will be faithful to redeem them through the Messiah. There will be a glorious, marvelous salvation.
And a question many listeners probably have is, what was the basis for that hope? How were Jewish believers saved before Jesus came and died for sin? Well, the basis of that hope was that they trusted in God, and they trusted in God to forgive their sins. The bottom line in Old Testament salvation is this, you cannot live up to the law of God, you know it, you fall on your face before God, you repent, and you plead with God to be merciful to you.
You believe that God is holy, you believe that God is merciful and gracious, and that God forgives sin. And you know that God will forgive because he presents himself as a forgiving God. I mean, God introduced himself that way when Adam sinned. In the garden, Adam was told, you eat, you die. He ate, and he lived to be over 900 years. Therein was God's mercy and grace and patience established. And God began immediately a recovery.
He came and said, there will come a seed of the woman who will crush the serpent's head, a prophecy of the coming Messiah. And then God illustrated that by killing an animal and wrapping Adam and Eve in the skin of that animal, which was God's way of saying there will come a sacrifice that will cover you. So from the very beginning, and then all through the whole sacrificial system, it was being depicted that there would come a final sacrifice.
There was a weariness in that system. No sacrifice was ever the final one until Jesus. Then the whole sacrificial system went away, the temple was destroyed, and there have been no sacrifices since, not even today among the Jews. It all laid out very clearly in the scripture, God would bring a final sacrifice. In the meantime, he is gracious, he forgives, he's merciful if you repent and ask him for that mercy.
Thanks, John. Our God truly is a merciful Savior. And friend, tracing God's redemptive plan through history reveals God's sovereign control over everything. To help you dig deep into the plan of redemption and everything else in God's Word, keep in mind the MacArthur Study Bible with its 25,000 footnotes that make the meaning of scripture clear. You can order yours.
Contact us today. Go to our website, gty.org, that's gty.org, or you can call us at 800-55-GRACE. With detailed introductions to each book, and dozens of maps and charts, and again, 25,000 study notes, the Study Bible can help you understand virtually every verse of scripture and how it applies to your daily life. Again, to order the MacArthur Study Bible, call 800-55-GRACE. You can also order the Study Bible when you visit our website, gty.org. And if you'd like to keep the MacArthur Study Bible available wherever you go, be sure to download our Study Bible app. It also includes multiple translations of scripture, it gives you immediate access to the resources of our website, blog articles, devotional, sermons, and much more. And for a reasonable price, you can add the study notes from the MacArthur Study Bible. Learn more about the Study Bible app at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day, and be back tomorrow as John shows you more of Daniel's prophecies and how those prophecies intersect with God's plan for your life. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.
