Daniel 12:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Daniel 12:7

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‘And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river.’ This is the man seen by Daniel at the start of the vision (10:5), who we conclude from Revelation 1, is the pre-incarnate Christ. It is this one who is going to answer the angel’s question. He knows how long it shall be to the end of these wonders, for the vision is about his plan for all events that will take place.‘When he held up his right hand’ – this is the making of an oath – ‘and his left hand unto heaven,’ – a kind of double oath, which most probably stresses the impossibility of it being broken – ‘and swear by him that liveth for ever, that the time will be a time, times, and an half.’ That is obviously figurative. We not surprised if all the numbers in the Book of Daniel are figurative, because everything that is given in visions to Daniel is figurative. This is the case from the very first vision, even when it wasn't his vision, but Nebuchadnezzar's dream. It was a great statue of gold, a statue of a man, which represented, because of the different materials of its components, the subsequent world empires. It was a picture, a massive symbol, and everything from dreams to visions in the Book of Daniel is symbolic. So we are not in the least surprised if the numbers are symbols too. Here in particular this must be the case, because Daniel tells us that he heard but did not understand. He did not understand the meaning of the answer; it was figurative, and he couldn’t understand the figure. Immediately afterwards he is told that the words of the vision are closed and sealed until the time of the end, even from him. He will not fully understand everything even about his own vision. What a strange kind of interpretation it would be which immediately said, ‘The figure must be in some shape or form literal. It must correspond to an actual time.’ The passage would be contradicting itself. So here is the figure: ‘it shall be for a time, times, and an half.’ It won't tell him the answer, because it is not for him to know at this point in revelatory history. But the symbol of a time, and times, and half a time – or three and a half years calculated in days (actually, a little longer than that) as the text goes on to say (verse 11) – tells us that in God's plan it is something very precise. God's plan is clear and perfect and will be adhered to. A time is one year; times is two years, and half a time is half a year. We have already come across this symbolic period in Daniel 7:25, where the same phrase is given in Aramaic. There, it is the period during which the ten kingdoms that follow the Roman empire, and which we interpreted as the entire sequence of kingdoms that will last right up until the end of the world, would continue. The same period of time appears in the Book of Revelation in three different forms. It appears as years: ‘a time, and times, and half a time’ (Revelation 12:14); as months: ‘forty and two months’ (Revelation 11:2); and as days: ‘a thousand two hundred and threescore days’ (Revelation 11:3) – the Jews calculated a year at 360 days. Revelation sheds light on this figure by telling us what happens during this period. It is the time during which the woman (Revelation 12:6, 14), who represents the church, is sustained and protected in the wilderness from the persecution of the dragon, the devil. It is the time when the two witnesses, representing the witness of the church, will bear testimony before the world (Revelation 11:3). Both Daniel and the Book of Revelation therefore make this period to represent the gospel age or the church age, the period of time that lies between the first and second comings of Christ. It is worth noting that three and a half is half of the number seven, and seven in the Bible represents the complete entity. If the entire history of mankind is represented by a period of seven years, then with human history divided into two by the coming of Christ, the latter half of human history is the church age, represented by three and a half years. But how long it actually is we do not know. It is an indeterminate time, which has not been revealed, because the precise date and time of the return of Christ, which marks its end, is not revealed anywhere in Scripture, as our Lord tells us.‘And when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.’ This is the antichrist. The church is called ‘the holy people’, and pictured in Old Testament terms, but it is the church of Jesus Christ at the end of time that is spoken of. It will be almost at the end of itself, almost, you might think, silenced, by the working of antichrist, and his marginalisation, oppression, and persecution of the holy people. But finally he will be destroyed as Daniel has been told before; that is the promise for the encouragement of God’s people. Again, this agrees with the Book of Revelation which represents the witness of the church of Jesus Christ as being almost eliminated: ‘And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them’ (Revelation 11:7). But they will not remain in this state: ‘And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them’ (Revelation 11:11). It was for their sake that God allowed the world to continue, and they will triumph over their enemies.‘And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?’ which no doubt is really the same question as the angel had asked, and shows this was indeed the question on Daniel’s mind, which he would only ask when the angel had asked it first. When will the end come? How long will these things last? ‘

Application

This is entirely consistent with what Peter tells us: ‘Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:¹¹ Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow’ (1 Peter 1:10-11). They looked into their own prophecies to see what the Spirit of God was saying through them. ‘They spoke better than they knew.’ The real author of Scripture is the Spirit of God, and the human authors sometimes did not understand their own prophecies. Where better to look for the meaning than in what God had said through them? How foolish therefore to limit their meaning to what they, the original authors, could understand, and to make this a rule of interpretation: that we should always try to limit the meaning of the text to what the original author understood. Quite apart from the fact that we do not know how much the original author understood – and therefore are at risk of making dangerous assumptions – we ought rather to be seeking the meaning of the divine author, not the human prophet through whom God spoke. Scripture must be allowed to interpret Scripture, and we gladly read back the truths revealed by later New Testament revelation into Old Testament revelation, because the one who spoke before knew what he was going to reveal later. Peter says prophecy transcends the human instrument through whom the prophecy is given: ‘For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost’ (2 Peter 1:21).

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Daniel 12:7 Commentary and Bible Study