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The Scriptorium

Shut and Sealed

These seem like strange instructions.

Daniel 12 (2)

Introduction
Here is a difficult verse indeed. Why would the Messenger go to all the trouble of burdening Daniel with these powerful, frightening visions, if He only intended that they should be “shut up” and “sealed” until they actually come to pass? There is great wisdom in this, and we need to discern it.

Meditate on Jeremiah 23.18-20.

Read Daniel 12.4

Think it through.
1.  How can we understand this instruction to Daniel? Clearly, the Messenger – Whom we have previously identified as the Word of God – does not intend that the contents of these revelations should notbe read and heeded. If that were the case, then the Lord Jesus overstepped the bounds of His own instruction by citing Daniel in Matthew 24.15 (and note Matthew’s curious exhortation to those who read Daniel’s and Jesus’ words!). The verb shut up carries the meaning of closing something so that nothing can be added to it. The verb seal indicates the stamp which a writer might use to indicate that a letter is from him. Meditate on Deuteronomy 4.3 and 12.32, Revelation 22.18, 19, and Acts 1.7. What did the Messenger intend for the words He gave Daniel? How should this understanding caution or guide us in trying to understand the visions given to Daniel, and all the rest of Scripture as well?

2.  At “the time of the end” the full meaning of these visions will be plain, but only to readers who are thoroughly familiar with the visions before the events begin to occur. All Scripture is like this: It proves the truth of its teaching as we live it out in our daily lives. The more we know of God’s Word, even though we may not understand it fully, the more we will experience the truth of it as it unfolds in our daily walk with the Lord. The danger is that we can allow our much busyness and many goings-on (“many shall run to and fro”) and all the competing information that comes at us from the media and elsewhere (“knowledge shall increase”) to distract us from what God has spoken, or to lead us to neglect or misunderstand God’s Word. This is precisely what the Messenger was warning Israel, through Daniel, to avoid. How can we know whether we are being distracted from this Message (the Word of God)? How can we avoid being distracted from or misled about what God has revealed in His Word? 

Meditate.
“And Jeremiah also says, ‘In the last days they shall understand these things.’ For every prophecy, before its fulfillment, appears to people to be full of enigmas and ambiguities. But when the time has arrived and the prediction has come to pass, the prophecies have a clear and certain meaning.” Irenaeus of Lyons (135-202 AD)

And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” Acts 1.7

O Lord God, let Your Word be the lens through which I view my world today, so that I see as Jesus sees, and I live as…

Pray Psalm 27.7-11.
Let this time of prayer establish your focus on our exalted Lord and King, so that He may lead and teach you throughout the day.

Psalm 27.7-13 (Joanna: Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise)
Hear, Lord, when we cry and be gracious, we pray!
Lord, do not deny us Your favor this day!
Our help, our salvation, though others may fall,
Preserve our good station when on You we call.

Lord, teach us; Lord, lead us because of our foes!
Hear, Lord, when we plead for release from their woes.
Had we not believed all Your goodness to see,
Our heart sorely grieved and in turmoil would be.

T. M. Moore

For a better understanding of the book of Daniel, and all the books of the Bible, order a copy of the workbook, God’s Covenant, from our online store. The studies in this workbook will show you how the parts of the Bible connect with one another to tell the story of God’s redemption and glory (click here).

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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