SERMON: “Daniel, Go Your Way” (Daniel 12:13)
“Daniel, Go Your Way” (Dan. 12:13)
Series: “Daniel:
God’s Sovereign Plans” #37 Text: Daniel
12:13
By: Shaun
Marksbury Date: Nov. 1, 2026
Venue: Living Water Baptist Church Occasion: PM Service
Introduction
We’ve talked about the importance of sealing a
document. Picture in your minds an
ancient legal document — perhaps a property deed, a covenant between two
parties, or a last will. The document
was written on a scroll which would then be rolled. After that, the author would use his mark to seal
it so it cannot be altered. An open copy
may exist for reference, but the sealed original is preserved until the
appointed day when it’s opened. Then, its
terms will take effect.
Daniel has just been shown the long vision of the end. Remember that, instead of receiving more
detail, he is commanded to seal the book and go his way. The Book of Daniel, as we know it, is just the
“open copy” of God’s sovereign plan. Meanwhile,
the final word is that the document is closed, to be preserved and opened only at
the end of the days.
The final vision of Daniel has taken us a couple months of
study, but we’ve completed it, with only one remaining verse. It divides cleanly into four segments, and we
can treat each as an excuse to remember everything we’ve learned in the book. This evening, we’ll remember Daniel, his
present responsibility, our present hope, and our future expectation.
First, Let’s Remember Daniel
But as for you,
V.12 said, “How blessed is he who keeps waiting and reaches
the 1,335 days!” But that will not
include Daniel. He’s receiving a vision
that will be thousands of years future to him.
In fact, he won’t live to see even many of his nearer prophecies to come
to pass.[1]
Let’s briefly review who this man is:
·
Daniel was only a young exile when he first came
to Babylon. Seeking to honor God even
then, he refused the king’s food. He received
from the Lord wisdom which was ten times better than the Babylonian wise men
(ch. 1). He models faithfulness even as
a young man that should stir us to do the same.
·
Daniel was also a prayer warrior, as we’ve seen
throughout the book. For instance, he, with
his three friends, sought God’s mercy and received the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s
statue dream (ch. 2). He later continued
to pray when it was illegal (ch. 6). His
vigilance in prayer is a model to the rest of us.
·
God was granting him both prophecies and
interpretations. For instance, he could read
the writing on the wall, and he records his visions of the four beasts, the
little horn, and the 70 weeks (chs. 5, 7–9).
Through him, God’s people would know much about what was coming, but we
see there the need to seek and trust the God of heaven for the future.
·
As we’ve studied his final vision, we noticed
something else. As an aged man, he is
still concerned for his people. His
prayer and petitions are for their well being.
Daniel, then, also arises as a model of loving God’s people and
continuing to lift them up before God.
We can remember his many spiritual accomplishments. And, the Lord calls us to do just that. In Hebrews 11, that great chapter that serves
as a hall of faith, we read, “And what more shall I say? For time will fail me
if I recount Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, as well as David and Samuel and
the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, performed righteousness,
obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped
the edge of the sword, were made strong from weakness, became mighty in war,
put foreign armies to flight” (vv. 32–34).
At least one of those (if not more) applied to Daniel, who shut the
mouths of the lions in that wretched den through his faith.
Yet, the word “faith” reminds us of something else — none of
his victories are self-made. Rather, they
are the fruit of the God who is sovereign over kings and over the wise men of
Babylon. The book repeatedly shows that
faithfulness in a pagan land is possible because God is still God.
And, in that, we receive another great lesson. We must walk this earth for some time that
the Lord has appointed, and we have responsibilities until the end. That brings us to the next segment for us to
consider:
Second, Let’s Remember His Present Responsibility
go your way to the
end;
Daniel can’t stay, awaiting further revelation. He may have wanted to linger with the Lord
and the angels, but he must return to ordinary life under King Cyrus for
now. The Lord does not always grant us
the rest we desire in this life, but that makes the time that is to come all
the sweeter.
Daniel is also not told to retire from service. Sometimes, we do receive that privilege in
secular employments, but we may never retire from serving God. He must continue in his way until his end.
Moreover, he must return to the Lord’s service for God’s
people. Part of that responsibility is
the command already given in vv. 4 and 9 in this chapter. He must seal up the book until the end of
time for the people of God. A key part
of our service to the Lord is in loving one another, and He gives Daniel an
immense task for all of God’s people.
As we think about the Scripture the Lord delivered through
Daniel, that brings us to another point.
I’ve been asked to address the apocryphal “Daniel” material. I don’t necessarily want to spend a whole
sermon on uninspired material, but this is the natural place to consider that. We might ask, What did he actually “seal
up”?
·
There are three expansions on the Book of Daniel. They are the Prayer of Azariah / the Song of
the Three Young Men (inserted into the fiery-furnace narrative), Susanna, and
Bel and the Dragon. Each of these are
set in Daniel’s time and seem to be believable additions to his work.
·
They also appear in the Greek (Septuagint and
Theodotion) and later in the Latin Vulgate.
However, they are absent from the Hebrew-Aramaic text that Daniel was
told to seal. While it’s never wrong to
use a translation of the Bible (as we do), we must be aware of any limitations
it may have, especially when there may be differences between it and the
original text.
·
The Jews did not consider these expansions to be
Scripture, and neither did the early church.
They are later expansions or separate tales, not part of the canonical
book that was closed and preserved for the end.
They may be interesting, but so is some fan fiction that is on the
market today.
·
Daniel’s sealing, then, did not include these
texts.
The important thing to note here is that Daniel’s task is nearly
finished. He is to go on living and
serving until the end of his own days.
Should he look forward to that end, both he and we have promises that we
will consider next.
Third, Let’s Remember Our Present Hope
then you will
enter into rest
Daniel isn’t happy that his people are promised so much war
and tribulation. How is he feeling at
this moment? We can imagine that he
might be feeling like there isn’t enough time left to do what he wants, to
provide the comfort he wants. We might
imagine he might feel exhausted, too, ready for the problems of this life to
end. Did he walk in hope?
I expect he did, and he could because of the revealed work
of the Lord. Still, these are feelings
which are common to the human condition.
This morning, we considered a bit about how depression can affect us
from the Book of Job. As Pastor Jorge
noted, “We can allow our circumstances to overwhelm our emotions.” But, we must remember the promises of our
Lord to those who trust in Him.
We’ve talked about the theological category known as
“eschatology” several times in this series — the study of the end times. However, we often think of eschatology only
in terms of what God has prophesied for the end of the world. There is also personal eschatology,
and this is the more important question for all who are facing death.
That’s where the important word “rest” comes into this text,
and it’s the biblical euphemism for death.
It is not annihilation. Isaiah
57:2 says, “He enters into peace; they rest in their beds, each one who walked in his upright way.” Similarly, even in the tribulation, Revelation
14:13 says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!” because “they
may rest from their labors.” There is a
time of peace and rest that the soul receives before the end of the world.
For the New Testament believer this means:
- Immediate
presence with the Lord (Phil. 1:23; 2 Cor. 5:8).
- Rest
from the toil, the opposition, and the sin-nature that still clings in
this life.
This is the intermediate state that precedes the
resurrection already announced in here in Daniel 12:2. We’ll talk more about that in a moment, but
note that death is not the end for the believer. The soul is conscious with Christ, and the
body awaits the resurrection.
Daniel’s is expecting rest, and so are we. As I noted, though, this is an intermediate
state. There is still more to come that
this book addresses. That brings us to
our final point:
Fourth, Let’s Remember Our Future Expectation
and rise again for
your allotted portion at the end of the days.
This verse weds personal eschatology to prophetic
eschatology so well. The believer, like Daniel, wants to know that
there is something more beyond rest.
They want to know what they will be doing without sin. Otherwise, the rest may be some ethereal,
non-corporeal existence.
The Bible presents that there will be a new creation of both
the body and the heavens and the earth.
For example, the word “rise again” here, translated “stand” in the LSB, here
picks up the resurrection language of v. 2. Daniel’s body will not just lay down in the
dust of the earth — it will arise again, just like the bodies of all the
saints.
Again, even Job in his lowest point knew about some of these
promises. He says, “As for me, I know
that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth” (Job
19:25) — going on to say, “Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I
shall see God” (v. 26). The resurrection
from the dead isn’t a promise that Daniel invented to comfort his people — this
is the consistent revelation of the Lord.
There’s more. Daniel
hears that he will arise to his “allotted portion.” That is the language of the inheritance which
is usually distributed by lot (as in Joshua). Daniel will receive a reward in the coming
Messianic kingdom.[2] At the end of days, all the righteous in the
Lord will rise to receive the share prepared for him.
This is also the close for the prophetic material of the
series:
- The
four kingdoms and the final phase of the fourth (chs. 2, 7).
- The
little horn / Antichrist, the abomination of desolation, and the 70th week
(chs. 8–9, 11–12).
- The
time, times, and half a time; the 1,290 and 1,335 days (12:7, 11–12).
- Michael’s
intervention, the deliverance of Daniel’s people, and the resurrection of
both the just and the unjust (12:1–2).
- The
everlasting kingdom given to the Son of Man (7:13–14) that will never pass
away.
The same God who has been sovereign over every empire will
bring history to its appointed end. At
that time, He will give every believer his allotted portion. Let’s trust that!
Conclusion
The last word to Daniel is also the last word to us. We must also go our way in faithfulness until
the end. We can trust that the book is
sealed and that the future is secure.
There is a coming rest, and we can be certain that there will then be the
resurrection of the dead and entrance into the kingdom of Christ.
God’s sovereign plans have not failed in the past, and they
will not fail at the end of the days.
[1] J. Dwight Pentecost, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures,
1985, 1, 1374.
[2] John D. Barry, Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael
S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R.
Grigoni, and David Bomar, Faithlife
Study Bible, (Bellingham, WA:
Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Da 12:13.