“‘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.’”
“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 words “shut up” indicate that Daniel was to keep a copy of the book of Daniel in a safe place. Daniel must keep a record of his book for posterity because of its divine inspiration. The angel challenged him to keep a record for “the time of the end”–that is, the Tribulation period.
Future attempts to understand the book of Daniel will look like scholars running back and forth in an intense search of increased knowledge about the prophecies of this book. As time passes, Bible scholars will understand the interpretation of Daniel better than Daniel did.
PRINCIPLE:
The maximum application of the principles of God’s Word to experience gives stability to the soul.
APPLICATION:
Some will painstakingly examine the visions of Daniel, but they will not understand until the last days. All of us want to know what it will be like in the final days. We want to understand the future. What does the future hold? Some people are unstable in their Christian lives because they do not have a core of biblical principles in their souls. They constantly vacillate from one experience to another. These people compensate for guilt complexes by sublimation. They refuse to take the time to learn biblical principles for life, so they go from one thing today to another thing tomorrow. They do not have much capacity for faithful and loyal love. These are the worst sort of believers.
When we carefully scrutinize the Word of God to find His principles for life, then we find stability in our souls. When principles of the Word of God become our way of life, we stabilize our souls. The glory of Christ becomes the most important orientation to our souls. Everything else is a detail. Money is a detail. Pleasure and sex are details. Without the perspective of God’s Word, these things become far too important to us. When these things become details, it does not matter whether we have them or not. Operation under the principles of the Word gives us the capacity to enjoy the details of life.
Mt 4:4, “But He answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” ’”
Some say another level of interpretation Daniel 12:4b is that transportation will become very speedy and widespread, and knowledge of all sorts will increase exponentially. Is this valid?
SC, that appears to be valid.
My question is this:
When is the “time of the end”?
I’ve always thought this to be future of event even to us now living. But if that is correct then how did we come about the words of this book since it was to be shut and sealed until that time. So if I’m understanding these instructions given to Daniel, the “time of the end” must be an event of the past since we are now reading the words of the book.
JB, People today, when they look back over history, can see the significance of much of what Daniel predicted. And in the time of the end (cf. v. 9, and note “the end” and “the end of the days” in v. 13) the words of this book that have been sealed (kept intact) will be understood by many who will seek to gain knowledge from it.