Part 3
Daniel Chapter 12
VERSE 1 continued “At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.”
Thus, Michael will rise from a sitting position to “stand up.” Simultaneous with his standing up will be a “time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” (The Scripture is not saying there would be no trouble before Jesus stands up, for all kinds of trouble have occurred and are occurring, especially here at the end of the age. However, the great Time of Trouble is yet future.)
Why will Jesus stand up?
To deliver the Holy Remnant, to judge Gog, to still the antitypical waves, etc. He will stand up at the zenith of the trouble.
Let us consider the statement “there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation.”
What are the worst times of trouble we can think of to date?
The following all come to mind: the French Revolution, Israel’s trouble in A.D. 69–70, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Flood in Noah’s day, and the lust and violence caused by the fallen angels prior to the Flood and their intermarriage with human females.
And yet this future trouble will be WORSE than all these combined.
So then from the troubles listed above we can see that the trouble will come from at least four sources,
1) the collapse of government, leading to anarchy
2) war
3) and 4) natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, famine and etc.
5) the release of the chains holding back the fallen angels in the day of judgement, i.e., their ability to become tangible in the human world, to materialize in fleshly form (Jude 6)
The Great Company will die as a class in the trouble yet future. They will be delivered “unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 5:5).
As a class, they will incur a judgment during which their lives will be terminated abruptly. When the fallen angels materialize en masse just prior to Jacob’s Trouble, their first object will be to put the Great Company class to death. The fallen angels will know which Spirit-begotten ones are left after the Little Flock is gone, and they will go after these consecrated ones first.
It may be assumed that they still bare a grudge against God for destroying their children in the flood, and so wish to reciprocate by attempting to kill God’s children. It should be properly understood that even the great company class are God’s children in the truest sense as all the spirit begotten ones, whether they end up in the “Little Flock” or the “great company” were begotten directly of God, by His spirit. However, the only thing the fallen angels will actually be accomplishing is freeing God’s wayward children from their flesh, which they unwillingly failed to sacrifice according to their covenant.
The next enemy will be Israel, the nominal natural people of God. The fallen angels have been given time for repentance. Therefore, those who manifest their true disposition by materializing and doing such evil work will be cut off in Second Death.
The thought here is that some of the fallen host have long sense repented of their choice and disobedience to God, and are hoping that as the Lord is merciful toward mankind for their failings so too, he might be toward theirs. The evidence in support of this thought is the word of the Lord which states that the saints shall judge the angels. This is obviously not in regards to the angels in heaven as they are all holy angels and in need of no judgement, that leaves only the fallen angels to be judged. The word "judge" as used in the Scriptures represents a trial. The inference, then, is that if they are to have a further trial, then some of them will have an opportunity of benefiting by that trial, possibly being restored to the rest of the holy angels.
Then Israel (the Holy Remnant) will be delivered from their natural enemies. Among other things, a spirit of confusion will come on Gog, the enemy host.
The phrase “the children of thy people” refers to the children of Daniel’s people, i.e., to natural Israel. Many brethren believe Jesus “stood up” and began his reign in 1878 A.D. with the act of raising the sleeping saints. They say he came as a King with a sharp sickle in his hand and a golden crown on his head and started to exercise his authority at that date. The eleventh chapter of Daniel brings us up to the date 1799 A.D., which is the beginning of the Time of the End. But we must remember that Daniel 12 also shows dates—the 1,290 days and the 1,335 days—which are an extension.
Verses 1–4 are a conclusion, and then Verses 5–12 are an addendum.
“At that time thy people [the Holy Remnant] shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”
Isaiah 4:2–4 not only speaks of this same time and event, but confirms the thought of the names of the survivors being recorded in advance. “In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.” Thus, one of the purposes of the standing up of Michael is to deliver Jacob. Subsequent verses tell what will happen as a result of the events in Verse 1. For instance, “many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.”
We move on to Verse 2 in our next post.
