We come to the final words of Daniel’s book! This prophetic book concludes with Daniel being promised rest, with the assurance that he will stand in his lot, his inheritance. This promise is found in the End Time for the Jew, the end of Daniel’s Last Week. Three sets of days are committed to him in the hope of the resolved End Time. There will be a final 1,260 days—the end of the Last Week. There will be a final 1,290 days—the end of the times of the Gentiles. And there will be a final 1,335 days—the end leading to the beginning of the Millennium. This latter set of days is when the Jew will stand in his allotment of land and enter permanently into a rest.
Precious words are uttered to him, “Blessed is he that waiteth” (v. 12). Oh, the blessedness of him that waiteth! This announces that the waiting through the trouble of Daniel’s Last Week (the first set of days, which is actually the days of the last half of Daniel’s Last Week), the waiting through the Battle of Armageddon (the second set of days), and the waiting through another forty-five days will bring the final promised rest for this prophet and his people, the Jews.
In light of the end and the promise given to him, Daniel is told that he should live the remaining days of his life quietly, faithfully, and patiently. By the end of his book, Daniel is well into his 80s and in retirement from his governmental duties; God now resolves the prophecies to his beloved prophet. The final words to Daniel are given as a vision of the End Time that includes great troubles. Nevertheless, these prophecies were not to disturb him or distract his attention from his present duties of living; rather, they were to inspire him in character.
The Blessed Hope for Our End Time
Dear reader, we are in our End Time. That which comes to a Christian who is waiting for the hope of the coming of Christ at the end of the days is a great blessedness. First John 3:3 declares that “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he [Christ] is pure.” The Greek rendering carries the meaning of this blessed hope of the Second Coming set upon him or resting upon him.
Three events are mentioned by the apostle John in this verse: (1) Christ’s appearing, (2) our seeing Him, and (3) our becoming like Him. This hope becomes a purifying element to the Christian soul, a cleansing from defilements. This hope is an efficacious one. Daily this “blessed hope” is to transform the Christian heart with a continual intention of the mind towards God and towards the hope of His Son’s coming. This hope guards our living to be conscious of His coming. This coming to us is a rapture, a catching up unto Himself. It is imminent in our thinking; it is impending, threatening, yea, it is at the door. Christ is likely to come at any moment. We read of this in the parable of the virgins; the cry of the bridegroom came when the virgins were asleep. In the Olivet Discourse Christ declared this coming would be “in an hour that ye think not.” To His disciples He exhorted, “Watch and pray.”
He will come as in the days of Noah. Both concepts of the End Time (the secret Rapture, and the open coming at the end of the Tribulation Period) should be viewed by signs as in the days of Noah. Such a prophecy from the Lord Himself clearly indicates that this cannot be a post-millennial view, that is, the belief that the Church will prepare the world in a universal acceptance of Christ for His return. Also Christ revealed that His coming would be “as it was in the days of Lot . . . . Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:28, 30).
There is another truth about this blessedness that is part of the coming of the Lord. Paul speaks of this hope at the end of his life in 2 Timothy 4:8:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
The word for love in this verse is the Greek word agapao. This verb is in the perfect tense, which indicates that this love for Christ’s coming begins at some point in the life and continues in the present-tense living of that life. We as Christians must ever love His appearing. To love His appearing means more than to simply love Jesus. In speaking over the years with many professing Christians, there have been a number who did not anticipate Christ’s coming with any degree of joy. But the Bible reveals that there is such a precious wonder as delighting oneself in the thought of the appearing of Jesus. The Christian must look forward to this glorious event as a consummation of his hopes and the fruition of his faith. Second Peter 3:12 exhorts us in the phrase, “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.” “Looking” is the translation of the Greek word prosdokao, meaning to be anticipating His coming, yea, to be thinking upon it. The thought is that we are to look for this coming with the greatest of joy. Not only so, but we are exhorted to “hasting,” or “hastening.” This word means to desire earnestly (rendered in the present tense). It presents the meaning that we are to hasten our preparations for it, that we are to pray and work for that day to hasten to us. Our souls are to run after it as one would run after that which he is eager to obtain.
Watching for His Coming
Another blessedness that must be accompanying our heart in the matter of Christ’s coming is the duty of watching. One of the evil desires of Satan is to cause the Christian to no longer watch for the coming of Christ. The actual moment when Christ will come in the Rapture is unknown to men, to angels, and even to Jesus Himself, Who is still in a partial kenosis before the Father (Mark 13:32). Yet the characteristics of the times of His coming are given in the Bible to aid us in our watching. “As it was in the days of Noah”—when we see these kinds of days we need to be watching. According to Luke 17, men in the End Time will be given to materialistic living and consumed in the pleasures of life without the least suspicion that the coming of Jesus is nigh. Christ culminated His words in Luke 17 by declaring “two in a bed,” “two in a field,” and “two grinding at the mill.” In each context, one is taken; the other is left behind. Christ once again declares the necessity of readiness and watchfulness for that event.
Meat in Due Season
A most important truth for the preachers of the End Time is found in Matthew 24:45–51, where Christ declared the important duty of a servant of the Lord: he is to ever give “meat in due season.” Though all of the Gospel is true and needed, there are certain Gospel truths that become more pertinent in certain generations than in others. How often we have read sermons from the past and wondered what made them so great back then, for as we read them they did not seem to have the “thrust” we had expected. Messages that would feed the household of God four hundred years ago, or even ten years ago, may not be the bread that the children need now; we find ourselves in different circumstances, in a different age of sin and philosophy. Even in our own lifetime, truth that was needed in our lives twenty years ago is not sufficient today, for we must ever be going on with God and going on in His Word. This is why it is imperative that God’s men keep pace with God’s appointment of truth from His Word for the present generation. The “evil” servant mentioned in the parable of Matthew 24 is the child of God who ceases to look for the coming of the Lord; he grows careless and indifferent, and begins to eat and drink (in 24:49 with those of verse 38).
Verses 48 and 49 also reveal the steps of the backslider. (1) He says in his heart, “My lord delayeth his coming.” (2) He begins to criticize, and smite, especially with his tongue, his fellow servants. (3) He takes his place at the table of the world. Jesus says that the Lord of that servant will come when he is not looking for Him, “And shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v. 51). Yes, dear reader, we must ever be watching.
Waiting for His Coming
But there is this matter of waiting for His appearing. In 1 Corinthians 1:7 we read, “So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We will need all of the charismata (the gifts) that God has for us in the living of the Christian life. These include the gift of Christ Himself, graces from Him, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the exhortation of the gifts, Paul also exhorts us to be “waiting” for Him to return, to eagerly anticipate His coming.
Over the years we have had precious students to come to Foundations and tell me in conversation that they dreaded the coming of the Lord, for one reason or another. A number of them came to this “dread” through words their pastors gave. We must not view the Second Coming with a spirit of dread. This verse given by Paul declares the need of “waiting”; the word reveals an eagerness of anticipation. Truly this is part of the blessing! First Thessalonians 1:10 states, “And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” This word wait in the Greek New Testament is a present infinitive, declaring to “keep on waiting for.”
The hope of the second coming of Christ was real and powerful with the apostle Paul, as it should be with us. Yes, it was subject to abuse then and is now also. But there is still the blessed hope for the coming of Christ, and Christians must ever be waiting. In the previous verse (1 Thess. 1:9) Paul speaks of “how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” This showed the additional influence of the Gospel that had come to the Thessalonians. This additional influence brought to them an eager anticipation of Christ’s coming for them. They were eagerly looking for Him to resolve life and to deliver them from this world.
Then later we read in 2 Thessalonians 3:5, “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and unto the patient waiting for Christ.” This is to be one of the ongoing desires of the Christian: for the heart to be directed, or made straight, carefully guiding the heart into the love of God. This is one of the important purposes of patience in waiting for Christ to come. Yes, patience comes from such waiting—remaining under life and all of its circumstances with joy—waiting for His return. Dear reader, we are to wait for Christ to come!
The “Delay” of His Coming
Do we see the great quartet of this truth? (1) After preparing for His coming, (2) after desiring with all our hearts to see His coming, (3) after learning the needed duty of watching, then, (4) we must learn to wait for it.
Within the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24 and 25, the Lord gave three parables to address the problem of how to wait for His “delayed” coming. The first parable (Matthew 24:45–51) presents the principle that we must be servants together in the giving forth of the Word, rather than giving ourselves to pleasures in the natural man as the age deepens. The second parable (Matthew 25:1–12) reveals that during what seems to be His delay, we must be a wise virgin; we must be pure; we must have oil; we must be awake; and we must be ready. The third parable (Matthew 25:16–30) reveals amidst the delay of His coming the important need to invest His talents.
Luke 19 presented the truth of the pound of life. Everyone receives a singular pound, that is, one life to live. But in this third parable of the Olivet Discourse, the talents of varying numbers are given by Sovereignty’s individual appointment. As the Master delays, what will we do with the pound and how will we invest Sovereignty’s talents. Will these be invested to His glory or hidden away in the earth?
Conclusion
The prophet Daniel is given these final words: “But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shall rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” He is told to live out the remaining days of his life unto the end of those days. The “rest” from this world of troubles and wickedness is both appointed and promised. The “rest of rests” (the superlative rest) will be found in the coming of Messiah. It is in this closing prophecy that Daniel is catapulted into the Millennium, the hope and promise of the Jewish nation, when they will be able to live in their promised land in peace. Daniel is personally given the promise of those coming days that he will stand in his lot (his allotment of land) at the end of the days. We must remember that Daniel never returned to Canaan after his captivity; he never saw his appointed land. But the promise from God was that he will one day rest in that promised allotment.
The secret, second coming of Christ, which will culminate the End Time of the Church Ages, is to be desired above all other days. The true saints have been waiting for over two thousand years for this Coming. They have desired to see it, they have longed for it, they have waited with patience. But it is our prayer that we will be the generation who will have the promise as Simeon: “And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:25, 26). This is as much a command to patiently wait for that day as it is to look for it.
May the Lord “bless” us in the waiting for His Son to come from Heaven.