As for You, Go Your Way Till the End

In the final vision that Daniel received, God showed him a glimpse of what was to come in the future. It will be chaotic. There will be great wars, power struggles, violence and injustice. Evil times lie ahead. Daniel was shown the vision at a time when the Jews had just returned home from exile. But God was already showing him that evil rulers will come to conquer the Beautiful Land again. The daily sacrifice of the Jews will be abolished. They will be persecuted. The evil rulers will defy God himself. As the vision progresses, the situation grows from bad to worse, culminating in the first verse of chapter 12: There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then.

Daniel must have been really confused. Why would God allow such things to happen? Why do the bad guys always win? I would expect that the visions would have greatly troubled him. They were disturbing and gave a sense of hopelessness and bleakness. Then comes a twist in the tale: But at that time your people-everyone whose name is found written in the book-will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. There is a shift from bleakness and chaos to eternal hope.

But by now, Daniel has even more questions. Maybe he was even more confused than before. He didn’t understand. When will these things come to pass? He wanted to know more. He was just like many of us are today. We read about the end times in the Bible. We get curious and we want to know more. When? How? What do these numbers and symbols mean? We don’t understand. Then God gave a surprising answer, which concludes the entire book of Daniel:

"As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance."

It is a promise. After almost three chapters of turmoil and confusion, the mood changes to that of peace and assurance. I could sense that God was saying to Daniel, “Don’t worry. Don’t worry about the details. Don’t worry if you do not understand many of the things that I have shown to you. I am in control. Leave it to me. Go your way and continue what you have been doing until your time comes. Then you will rest. After all these things have happened, you will rise again to receive what I have promised you.” What a beautiful ending! These words speak to us who live in times such as these as much as they spoke to Daniel. They are words of comfort, peace and hope.