End-Time Secrets of Daniel 8–12

Chapter 15

 

Daniel Faints –

Then Recognizes His Mistake

 

“And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days. I Daniel fainted” (Daniel 8:26-27a).

He Didn't Understand

When Daniel heard the 1260-year prophecy [time, times and dividing of times (7:25)] he was troubled, not fully grasping its significance. “But I kept the matter in my heart” (Daniel 7:28). Its content did not seem of urgent concern to inquire further.

Two years later another timing message came. This time a time period was imbedded in sanctuary imagery. A new theme within an atonement framework was presented. He was told when God’s dwelling place and His people were to be cleansed and made holy. Right in the middle of that message another little horn arose intent on blocking that atonement.

That is why Gabriel asked the “whoever it is” (Jesus) those timing questions (8:13). When is all this going to happen? When Daniel heard that 2300 evening and morning atonement cycles had to pass, he was unable to separate the time of the Babylonian captivity (Jeremiah 25:11-12) from this lengthy period. Was Israel’s punishment now going to be extended over two millenniums?

For now neither Jesus nor Gabriel would respond to the painful concerns of God’s servant. They did convey five very important bits of information, however, to help Daniel put it into context.

 

1.  Everything shown in the vision would be in the future (achariyth) after the 2300 evenings and mornings (8:17, 19).

2.  That would occur in the time of the end (eth qets) when God’s judgment and wrath occur (8:19).

3.  That time or season would be called an “appointed time.” It was distinct and set apart (8:19).

4.  Then in 8:26 he finally made a very important distinction. The chazown vision was going to be sealed, not even understood, till the time of the end (12:4).

5.  The evening and morning mareh vision was confirmed – it’s really going to happen. (With that, everything abruptly comes to an end.)

      All this information overwhelmed Daniel. For now it was more than Daniel could emotionally handle. “And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it” (Daniel 8:27). For a man gifted in understanding visions, this was indeed most troubling.

Daniel was told the chazown vision wouldn’t be understood. But Gabriel never said the mareh vision was sealed! He was so focused on the apparent delay in releasing God’s people from Babylon, he failed to catch the positive clues.

But to Daniel’s credit he began to study the prophecies related to the captivity.

“Still burdened in behalf of Israel, Daniel studied anew the prophecies of Jeremiah. They were very plain – so plain that he understood by these testimonies recorded in books ‘the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.’ Daniel 9:2.”[1]

 

1.  He was convicted and finally understood and, in faith, knew the captivity was only for seventy literal years (9:2).

2.  He saw that Babylon had fallen in the vision, perceiving now that that literally had been fulfilled.

This, typologically, is the same restoration setting we see in the book of Revelation. Shortly after spiritual Babylon falls Jesus comes to free His people from bondage. The messages in Daniel 8–12 play out the final events in that restoration, which occur right at the end.

The issues Daniel finally understood are vital for us to grasp with great precision: Why were the children of Israel in bondage for seventy years? In the Chronicles of ancient Israel we find: “To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years” (II Chronicles 36:21).

The Sabbath land rest was every seven years (Leviticus 25:1-7). For 490 years those people rebelled against and defied God. For every Sabbath year of rest they missed (one out of seven), they were to be in captivity. Their homeland lay desolate for seventy years because of that many Sabbaths missed. Thus, the duration of their captivity.

Remember, this statute was part of God’s everlasting, perpetual (tamiyd) – covenant (Leviticus 26:3, 15, 42, 45). Daniel recognized this when he began to pray.

Two years later he said that the time appointed, when all those things in the vision would occur, was “long.” He finally understood the timing issues and understood the mareh vision (10:1). The conflict would be long, but the 2300-year prophecy is now grasped. It is helpful to know that part of Gabriel’s revelations to him was open for all to know. It was unsealed.

What does that mean? The prophecy tucked within 8:14 was given long before 1844. It was “open” for the Advent pioneers before 1844 when they rediscovered the meaning of its timing. Then shortly thereafter, in the light of the cleansing and restoration, a covenant fulfillment message became clear.

The Code, Covenant and Restoration

In the beautiful statutes that were outlined by Moses, many of which apply to us today, a deeply important Levitical code was given in Leviticus 25:1-7. The children of Israel were to sow their fields for six years, but in the seventh it was to rest. That whole year was sacred. It was a Sabbath. The crops would produce enough food during the sixth year to cover that year and the next two, so on the eighth year when crops were sown again, enough food would remain until the new harvest came (Leviticus 25:19-22).

This was God’s covenant plan:

      Year             Activity

      1-5           work

        6            work and prepare

        7            rest

        8            restore

That is also God’s restoration plan for this earth.

This was so important that just a few thoughts later God said, “If ye will not harken unto me,” then He began to describe the consequences of rebellion and disobedience to the statutes. He summed that up by saying, “But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant” (Leviticus 26:14-15), punishment will follow.

The whole covenant was a plan of restoration from sin. It made provision for the cleansing of sin so thoroughly that man would become holy, cleared of any wrong and be eternally one with Him. This is what was alluded to in Daniel 8. Satan, through his agent – the little horn – was attempting to prevent a covenant from becoming a reality. Right in the middle of the horrendous war comes Daniel 8:14. God will have a holy people – cleansed of all sin. Jesus is personally speaking in that verse.

The centerpiece of God’s great plan was the atonement. Those who persisted in rebellion against the atonement would experience the sword, be scattered among the heathen and have their homeland become desolate.

“Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate … even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths” (Leviticus 26:34). That is one reason why we know that during the millennium of desolation, when Satan is bound to this earth (Revelation 20:1-3), it is a time the land rests because the world has been in rebellion. That millennium is a seventh – one of rest. The eighth is restoration – a new earth.

Israel turned against God, and a curse of seventy years of captivity was placed upon them and their land was to be a “perpetual desolation” (Jeremiah 25:12). Again, why the seventy years in Babylonian captivity? Daniel restudied that. With all he had gone through and now Gabriel leaving him with dangling issues, he was forced to look at the prophecies like he never had before.

In those prophecies he found a promise, one which reverberates down to this day, as we will see later.

“For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:10-13).

This is what happened: “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:1-2).

Restoration was just about to occur. Cyrus, a symbol of Jesus, would mediate their freedom to the land of promise. This model guides us as it did Daniel, with beautiful understanding as to what lies just ahead for God’s people. Babylon falls, Christ comes, God’s people return to the promised land.