Daniel Chapter 12 Summary

Ezekiel 47

1 Afterward he brought me again unto the door of

the house; and, behold, waters issued out from

under the threshold of the house eastward: for

the forefront of the house stood toward the east,

and the waters came down from under from the

right side of the house, at the south side of the

altar.

2 Then brought he me out of the way of the gate

northward, and led me about the way without unto

the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward;

and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.

3 And when the man that had the line in his hand

went forth eastward, he measured a thousand

cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the

waters were to the ankles.

4 Again he measured a thousand, and brought me

through the waters; the waters were to the knees.

Again he measured a thousand, and brought me

through; the waters were to the loins.

5 Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a

river that I could not pass over: for the waters

were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could

not be passed over.

6 And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen

this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return

to the brink of the river.

7 Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of

the river were very many trees on the one side

and on the other.

8 Then said he unto me, These waters issue out

toward the east country, and go down into the

desert, and go into the sea: which being brought

forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.

9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing

that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the

rivers shall come, shall live: and there

shall be a very great multitude of fish, because

these waters shall come thither: for they shall

be healed; and every thing shall live whither the

river cometh.

10 And it shall come to pass, that the fishers

shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto

Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth

nets; their fish shall be according to their

kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding

many.


The twelfth chapter of Daniel wraps up with an

appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ. Daniel

says that he wants to know what this last vision

means and when it happens. We see one

fulfillment of this final vision taking place

some 600 years later in the little village of

Bethlehem, with the virgin-born baby in a manger.

How was Daniel to know, from his place in time

that it is all about Jesus? He couldn't see that

the sum of all his visions were pointing to a

kingdom that will never end, bought to earth in

the form, not of a great demi-god, but in the

form of a suffering saviour. This was the

inference that was given in the text of one of

his recent predecessors, Isaiah. Did Daniel have

a scroll of the text of Isaiah? If you don't

want to give so much credit to Daniel, then there

is the prophetic text of his contemporary,

Ezekiel, who also ends his text with a millennial

kingdom, and includes, among other things, the

symbolic 'river', beginning with Ezekiel 47:1.

Take a look at Ezekiel 47.


Another point to take away from both Daniel 12

and the final passages of the Ezekiel text is

that they seem to include the gentile

(non-hebrew) people. Daniel, in verse four and

in verse ten uses the word translated 'many',

that appears to be a reference to those outside

the hebrew lineage. Ezekiel provides a much more

explicit metaphor in chapter 47. To both of

these writers, I'd imagine that, under the

circumstances, being captives in a 'gentile'

nation, they would have to be somewhat confounded

by this notion that there is any place in the

covenants of Abraham and Moses for those

'outsiders' who have no relationship to this

heritage, let alone the distinctive feature of

the temple, all centered around the prominence of

Jerusalem. In their day, this idea -- the

inclusion of the gentiles -- has to be offensive

to all of their sensibilities.


If you want to disagree with that point, have a

look at the greek scripture and the book of Acts

where Peter is told to go to the house of a Roman

soldier and preach the gospel. See Acts chapter

10. There is an explicit discussion of the

prejudice that exists in the mind of Peter

regarding the place for gentiles under the new

covenant written in the blood of Jesus. From the

conversation in this passage, there's no doubt

that Peter can't comprehend the inclusion of

gentiles. Imagine the incomprehension of the

prophets from 600 years prior. In both of these

instances, what we see in the text is simply the

narrative of this incomprehensible message as it

is being transmitted, and the fact that the

kingdom of Heaven has his own agenda to advance.


Based on this internal* evidence, and the

surprising preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls,

it's hard to imagine that anyone can remain

sceptical about the uniqueness and credibility of

the book of Daniel, if they have even the

slightest idea what the text is about. Chapter

12 all by itself is an absolutely stunning

prophetic passage, not only about what has taken

place already, in events surrounding Jesus time

here on earth, but also in those events yet to

take place -- the resurrection of the 'many', the

final persecution of believers, the ascendence of

the 'abomination' and the end of time.


So, what's Daniel gonna' do? He faithfully

records the episode that he's involved in, the

conversations and characters that he hears and

sees, and leaves it at that. He has no way to

know the meaning of what the future holds, and he

isn't even willing to speculate. Poor guy. He's

about ninety years old and he's seen and done

alot in his days. But as it turns out, a

complete awareness of the implication of what

he's just seen and heard would only leave the old

boy more confused and troubled than all of the

uncertainty.


12:13 But go thou thy way till the end be: for

thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end

of the days.


What Daniel is left with is the certain prophecy

that whatever waits in store for the future, his

place and position lies secure in the fact that

he has faithfully served his Creator while on

this side of the river.

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=== NOTE ===
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* Internal not strictly in the technical sense,

but internal in the sense that the narrative

doesn't make any sense EXCEPT as a prophetic

passage, since it's meaning lies entirely outside

the present context of the writer.