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"And to wait for His Son from heaven, Whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivers us from the wrath that is coming" (I Thess. 1: 10).
Jer. 30: 7 says of this same period:--
"Alas, for that day is great, so great that none is like it; it is the time of Jacob's
trouble, but he shall be saved out of it."
The reader may remember that in the structure of the whole book given in
Volume XXI, page 35, the deliverance of Daniel from the den of lions is placed as an
historic foreshadowing of this greater and future deliverance:--
"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament: and they that
turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. 12: 3).
The glories of heaven, and of the risen saints, whatever their sphere of blessing, are
invariably described in terms of brightness. The particular word used here is zohar,
which occurs only once elsewhere:--
"Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his
loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of
brightness, as the colour of amber" (Ezek. 8: 2).
Daniel had felt all his comeliness turn to corruption at the appearance of the heavenly
vision recorded in Dan. 10:, but in resurrection glory, both Daniel and those who shall
stand with him, will themselves "shine as the brightness of the firmament".
There is a special place given here to those who shall remain faithful in the fiercest
days of antichristian persecution. In Dan. 11: 30-35, where the holy covenant is forsaken
and the abomination set up, the people are sharply divided into two classes: (1) "Such
as do wickedly against the covenant"; (2) "The people that do know their God". These
two classes seem to be again in mind in Dan. 12: 2. "These", the first class, shall awake
to everlasting life; "those", the second class, to shame and everlasting contempt.
The first class is further sub-divided: "They that understand among the people shall
instruct many" (Dan. 11: 33). It is clear from verses 33-35 that this instruction will be
given at a time of fierce trial. It will not then be a conventional activity; it will be
accomplished at the risk of life itself.
Those that awake unto everlasting life will, similarly, differ in degrees of glory. All in
this company will attain to hayi olam, "age life", but some among them will shine as the
firmament and as the stars. And, as I Cor. 15: shows, "one star differs from another star
in glory".
Here, then, is the end of "warfare great", an end that God alone could foreshadow or
achieve. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Here, too, is
the end of Daniel's prophecy. The remaining verses of the chapter are in the form of an
epilogue which, while containing matter of importance and giving further light upon