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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Daniel 12:5
Comments
After the words of conclusion in verse 4, Daniel is shown a little more. He is by a river, and it is reasonable to understand this to be the same river Hiddekel [Tigris] (10:4), which featured at the beginning of the vision, when Daniel had seen the same ‘man clothed in linen’ (10:5) that he will see again in the next verse. We have interpreted this man in linen as a theophany of Christ. It is all one vision and after all that he has been shown, he is still in the same location. But now two others appear: ‘Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two’ – angels with the appearance of men. These are not as noble as the one who has been revealing all this to Daniel; they are not clothed in linen as he was. ‘The one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.’ The two angels stand in a lower position on the banks of the river, while the man in linen stands above the waters indicating superior power, as in Daniel 8:16 where one in the same position speaks to Gabriel. The one in linen has knowledge which the two other angels do not have. Why two? EJ Young suggests, ‘The two angels are probably present as witnesses to the oath uttered in verse 7.’ This principles of two witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15) applies even to the witness of heaven (John 8:17-18).One will ask a question, a single question; the other will say nothing. What are they doing in the vision? We remember that Peter says that angels desire to look into these things (1 Peter 1:12). Daniel possibly has a question on his mind, and maybe the question that is asked by one angel is the very question he wished to ask. He dare not ask it, either out of reverence, or because he is too overwhelmed by the vision, so an angel asks it. The fact that an angel asks it means that it is a legitimate question to ask. Daniel is not going to be permitted to know the answer in the form he desires, but it is still a legitimate question to ask. ‘How long? What is the timescale? When will these last things take place?’ Maybe that is the question, because that is what the angel asks: ‘And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?’
Application
Questions
The word used for river here is different to that used in Daniel 10:4, and is the word commonly used to refer to the Nile. Leupold suggests that it is used as a reminder of the experiences of the Israelites in the days in which they were in Egypt by the side of the Nile. The angel clothed in linen who represents Christ stands with divine power over the waters of the river. In the same way he stands over all the affairs of the church throughout its history to deliver his people.
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