CHAPTER XI
“THE WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND.” HAVE THESE PROPHECIES A FUTURE
APPLICATION
We have reserved verses 9 and 10 until now, in order that we might deal
with all the time measures together. So we come finally to the answer
given to Daniel’s question (#Da 12:8), "What shall be the end
of these things?" But it was not for Daniel to know this; for the
reply was: "Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed and sealed
up till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and
tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall
understand; but the wise shall understand."
Here is one of those cases spoken of by Peter, where the prophet searched
and enquired diligently what the Spirit of Christ did signify; and where
it was not given him to know the things which were testified beforehand.
For while Daniel was made to understand much of what was to transpire
during the second period of Jewish history, there were matters connected
with the final stage thereof which were to be sealed up until the time
should be fulfilled, when Christ Himself should reveal them and then not
to all, but only to "the wise."
In this view of the passage we can clearly see a wonderful fulfilment
of it in the things which took place in the days of Christ, as recorded
in the Gospels. For those inspired narratives present vividly the contrast
between what our Lord repeatedly called a "wicked" generation,
and the few who followed Him, and were made "wise" through His
doctrine. This contrast appears clearly in those well known words recorded
by Matthew: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed
them unto babes" (#Mt 11:25). Here the "babes" are they
who were truly "wise; " and of them it is recorded that, after
His resurrection, He "opened their understanding, that they might
understand the Scriptures" (#Lu 24:45). Moreover, it was to them
that He gave those special revelations concerning the then approaching
destruction of Jerusalem, which form the second part of our present study,
and which throw light on the prophecies of the Book of Daniel.
Here we have, therefore, a conspicuous and inspired record of a particular
era, the days of Christ, when it was given to the spiritually "wise"
to "understand" these very matters concerning which Daniel inquired
so eagerly; and this too was "the time of the end" of that very
portion of Jewish history to which the prophecy relates. And not only
so, but, at that very same time, there was another company expressly called
by Christ Himself the "wicked" (#Mt 12:45, &c.) who continued
to "do wickedly, " even to the point of seizing their own Messiah,
and with "wicked hands, " putting Him to death. How could there
be a more striking fulfilment of the words: "the wicked shall do
wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand"? Those words surely
point to something very definite, and very important. It is certain that
in such a prophecy the Spirit of God would not waste words by foretelling
a matter of course thing, such as that wicked men in general will do wicked
deeds in general. No, it was some particular and monumental act of wickedness
that was in contemplation, and one, moreover, that would be perpetrated
by a generation of men specially characterized by a lack of understanding
of what was happening in their days. It was, in fact, the same deed of
wickedness that is foretold in Daniel 9:24 as finishing the transgression.
The fulfilment of this part of the prophecy calls for just such a deed
as was described by Paul when he said of the Jews and their leaders that,
"because they knew Him not, nor the voices of the prophets which
are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him"
(#Ac 13:27).
The ingenuity of expositors has been greatly taxed in the effort to make
these words apply to the closing days of our own age. We are well aware
of the natural propensity of the mind to seize upon such passages as this,
and to seek a fulfilment in the last days of this present dispensation;
yet it seems strange that the plain fulfilment, to which we are here calling
attention, should be so generally overlooked. Every expositor of recent
times, who has a scheme of interpretation of Daniel’s prophecies
to advocate, inevitably and blandly cites the words "the wise shall
understand" as if they constituted a convincing proof of the correctness
of his own scheme. For he takes "the time of the end" to mean
the end of our own dispensation (as if it were the only era that had an
"end") and then he further takes it for granted that he is one
of "the wise" to whom it has been specially given to "understand"
these previously hidden things. But we are persuaded that much which passes
nowadays as an "understanding" of these matters, is but a misunderstanding
after all; and that some who esteem themselves "wise" in regard
thereto are quite otherwise.
Many purified and made white. We would also direct attention to the important
words, "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried, "
which stand in apposition to the words, "but the wicked shall do
wickedly." It is easy to identify those who, in the last days of
Jewish national life, were "purified and made white" through
the blood of Christ, and who also were severely "tried" for
the faith they professed. And again we say that such words, in such a
prophecy, call for a special and definite fulfilment; for it virtually
deprives them of all significance to interpret them in a way which would
make them apply to any and every period. The fulfilment which these words
call for is found in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. There
we read of "thousands" who were saved, of "many" of
the priests who became obedient to the faith, of "multitudes both
of men and women" who turned to the Lord. These were purified and
made white; and then they were tried with a "fiery trial"; but
to these (for they were the "wise") it was given to "understand"
the things which were to befall their city and sanctuary at "the
end."
But in contrast with this, history has preserved the most impressive evidence
of the fact that none of the wicked (those who rejected Christ and His
gospel, and who slew the messengers He sent to them) understood what was
coming. On the contrary, up to the very day of the capture of the temple
by the Romans, they were deceived by false prophets, and were fatuously
looking for a miraculous intervention in their behalf. As to this we have
the testimony of a most competent and impartial witness, Josephus, who
says:
“A false prophet was the occasion of the destruction of those people,
who (the prophet) had made a public proclamation in the city that very
day, that God commanded them to get up upon the temple, and that they
should receive miraculous signs of their deliverance. Now there was a
great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose upon
the people, who announced this to them, that they should wait for deliverance
from God" (Wars V. 11, 2 and VI. 5, 2).”
But "the wise, " those who were enlightened by the word of Christ
and by the Spirit of God, did understand the prophecy and did secure their
safety thereby; of which we purpose to speak in detail when we come to
our Lord’s prophecy on Mt. Olivet.
Thus it will be seen that, not only do the terms of this prophecy confine
us, in our search for the fulfilment of all its details, to the era of
Jewish history anterior to the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans and
the scattering of the holy people, but we are enabled, from the Scriptures
themselves, and from authentic contemporary records, to find, in the stupendous
events of that era, a complete and worthy fulfilment of every detail.
The last word in the prophecy, and in the Book, is a word of personal
comfort to Daniel: "But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou
shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."
The "lot" to an Israelite would mean his portion or inheritance.
So to Daniel is given the assurance that all these calamities should not
abridge his "rest" or his inheritance. Thus he was supported
to hear and to record those wonders, by the comfort wherewith he was comforted
of God.
Thus closes the Book of "Daniel the Prophet; " but the subject
concerning which he prophesied, or rather concerning which a revelation
was given him from heaven—the destruction and desolations of Jerusalem
under the judgment of God—was taken up by the Lord Jesus Christ,
and was made the theme of His own last prophecy. Therefore we may properly
regard Daniel’s prophecy as the introduction to Christ’s Olivet
discourse, and the latter as the completion of the prophecy of Daniel.
HAVE THESE PROPHECIES A FUTURE APPLICATION?
In the foregoing pages we have sought to give the true interpretation
of the last four chapters of Daniel. In so doing we have endeavoured to
show that "the latter days, " wherein the last of those prophecies
was expressly to be fulfilled, was that final period of Jewish history
which stretched from the return from Babylon in the days of Cyrus, to
the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; and also to show that "the
time of the end" spoken of in (#Da 12:4) was the very last stage
of that period, including the days of Christ, and the time of gospel preaching
which followed.
But the subject should not be left without some reference to the question
whether these prophecies have any application at all to the present dispensation.
We are deeply convinced that there is no warrant whatever for breaking
off the last parts of these prophecies, and carrying the detached portions
across the intervening centuries to the end of this gospel dispensation.
This freakish system of interpretation has nothing in the Scripture to
support it, so far as we can discover. But is it not a possibility nevertheless
that the prophecies, or parts of them at least, may have a secondary and
final fulfilment in the last days of our era?
This question cannot be dismissed as unworthy of serious consideration,
seeing that many expositors of the highest ability have elaborated systems
of interpretation wherein the time measures of Daniel are taken, on the
scale of a day to a year, to measure from various epochs in the past to
various critical events in this dispensation. Especially have those time
measures been used to locate the second coming of Christ, and other events
which pertain to the time of the end of this present age. Sometimes the
periods are measured on the scale of a lunar year, sometimes on the scale
of a solar year, sometimes on the scale of a calendar year (counting 360
days to a year). Mr. H. Grattan Guinness, in his well known books, The
Approaching End of the Age, and Light for the Last Days, uses all three
scales, and he seems to obtain remarkable results whichever scale he employs.
Thus these figures appear to give, in many cases, the measures of time
between important historical events of old, and corresponding events in
our own era. All this suggests the possibility that the figures given
in the 12th chapter of Daniel may, when made to mean years instead of
days, be found to measure accurately from some selected starting point
to say the rise (or the fall) of the Papacy as a temporal power, or of
Mohammedanism, or to the French Revolution, or to the outbreak of the
World War, or to the taking of Jerusalem from the Turks. Such studies
are not without interest and value; but they do not, in our opinion, supply
us with a basis upon which the date of any future event can be predicted;
and most emphatically do we declare it as our judgment, that neither these
figures nor any others have been given as a means whereby the date of
the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ can be calculated. To that judgment
we are driven by His own definite statements in His Mount Olivet prophecy,
which we are now about to examine. From those statements it will be clearly
seen that, while on the one hand the Lord warned His disciples most explicitly
concerning the exterminating judgments which were to fall upon the people,
the city and the temple in that generation, and while He gave them an
unmistakable sign whereby they might be warned of the approach thereof
in time to escape, He took the greatest pains on the other hand to impress
upon them that His own coming again would be at an unexpected season,
and without any premonitory signs whatever.
Furthermore, it is obvious that, in order to measure long time intervals
from a starting point in Old Testament days, it is necessary to have a
correct chronology; and the practice of all who have made calculations
of the sort referred to has been to assume some one or other of the existing
chronological systems based upon the canon of Ptolemy, which Anstey has
shown to be erroneous, or at least untrustworthy. And in this connection
we would say that our confidence in all calculations of the sort referred
to is much shaken by the fact that each scheme of interpretation yields
equally remarkable results whether one system of chronology be chosen
or another, and whether the "year" be taken as containing 365
days, or 360, or 354 (the last being the length of the lunar year). Now,
inasmuch as it is manifestly impossible that all the different chronologies
based on Ptolemy’s canon should be equally correct, or that it is
a matter of indifference whether the year, which is the time unit in all
these calculations, be of one length, or another, we are unable to find
in such systems of interpretation any basis solid enough to support settled
conclusions. Therefore, as to the time of any of the as yet unfulfilled
prophecies, we have no means for fixing, or even closely approximating,
the year in which it will occur; and this statement applies in a special
way to the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And finally we would say, after much consideration of the matter, and
with the desire (which must be common to all) that we might have a divinely
revealed measuring line and a starting point whereby future events could
be accurately located on the chart of the years, yet we cannot see sufficient
warrant for assuming that the "days" mentioned in these prophecies
are really "years." We shall not take the time to examine the
reasons usually given in support of that assumption, it being enough to
say that we know of no proof that the word "day, " in any time
measure given in the Bible, means "year; " nor can we conceive
of any reason why, if a year were meant, the word "day" should
be used instead. *
The case of the "seventy weeks" of (#Da 9:24) is not an instance
of making the word "day" stand for a year; for the word means
a heptad or seven, which might be one of days or years, and which the
event proves in this case to be years.
*Note from Historicism.com: For a defense/exposition of the year-day hermeneutic, see "The Week in History" by Guinness, and "The Interpretation of Biblical Prophecy" by Dr. Oral Collins.
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