Daniel 12:1 indicates that this is the time of the great tribulation. This verse, Jeremiah 30:4-9, and Matthew 24, all refer to the same time of trouble, “such as was not since the beginning of the world.”
Daniel 12:2 gives the result of the “great tribulation” (Matt. 24:21). A time of Jewish national awakening is the result. “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth” refers to the present state of Israel. Scattered, without a home, asleep towards God, refusing their Messiah, they will spiritually awake.
This process of awakening is described in Ezekiel 37, and details of it are vividly portrayed in Zechariah 12. These Scriptures we propose to treat in more or less detail further on.
In this awakening two classes are disclosed—those who awake to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting contempt: in other words, those who receive the Gospel of the Kingdom, and thus are ready for the advent of the Messiah; and those who reject the message.
Daniel 12:3 tells us how the wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and how they will turn many to righteousness, evidently an allusion to the labors of the Lord's earthly brethren, the godly Jews, who will evangelize the nations, and the results of whose mission are seen in Matthew 25:31-46, in the sheep who go into everlasting life; the rejection of their message seen in the goats, who go into everlasting punishment. In verse 4 Daniel is bidden to seal up the book till the time of the end.
Finally, Daniel sees “other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.” The question is asked, “How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?” The answer is given solemnly, “It shall be for a time, times, and an half,” that is, for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, or three and a half years, that is, during the great tribulation.
Daniel himself heard this, but failing to understand, asked, “O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?” He is bidden to go his way, as the words are closed up and sealed till the end of time. The two classes are again referred to. The wicked shall not understand, but the wise will understand.
Evidently the blow of judgment does not fall in all its entirety at the end of one thousand two hundred and sixty days, as verse 11 tells us from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away and the abomination of desolation set up, answering to Matthew 24:15, should be one thousand two hundred and ninety days, or a month later, and blessed is the one that waits and comes to one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days; that is, forty-five days still later, or a month and a half.
Evidently from Scripture “the King” meets his doom before “the King of the North” does. The King, Antichrist, meets his doom as seen in Revelation 19:20, whereas “the King of the North” probably meets his doom later as described in Zechariah 14.
Daniel is to go his way; he should rest, that is pass off the scene, but stand in his lot at the end of the days; that is, in resurrection he will find his place in the scene of glory which the Lord shall bring in, and be awarded his position in the glorious kingdom then set up.
The instruction to Daniel to seal up the sayings of his prophecy even to the time of the end stands in contrast to the Apostle John, who is bidden, “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand” (Rev. 22:10).
In truth the rejection of Christ brings us to the threshold of the time of the end, and the Christian gifted with the Holy Spirit of truth is encouraged to know all these things.
May God help us all to a true and spiritual knowledge of this prophecy.