GO YOUR WAY

I recently finished a study with the Life Group that Carol and I lead for our church. Five or six months ago the group was discussing what our next study would be and when there was no clear consensus, I rather rashly suggested, “Why don’t we do a brief study on the book of Daniel?” I was thinking we could do three or four sessions and go on to something else.

It took twelve sessions to do a “brief overview” because Daniel is both a very rich and very complicated study. The first six chapters are historical and faith building. We meet Daniel and his friends and watch as God uses Daniel’s gifting to elevate him to leadership in Babylon. We are inspired and our faith is built as we follow Daniel’s friends into the fiery furnace. In chapter six we read the famous account of Daniel in the lions’ den—great, faith-inspiring reading.

The last six chapters of Daniel present his four prophetic visions. The prophecies describe different periods of world history before the first advent of our Lord Jesus. The final prophecy in chapter eleven starts in the period before Christ but then suddenly makes a leap to the final portion of the great tribulation and describes in some detail the character and behavior of the Antichrist before he meets his final end.

The prophecy of Daniel 11 is considered by many to be one of the most important in the Bible. Others consider it to be too accurate in detail to be a prophecy at all. The critics assail this chapter and suggest that with all the accurate detail of what Daniel saw several hundred years before the events occurred, it was written after the fact and inserted as a way to fool people into believing it was prophecy. Their criticism underscores the importance of this prophecy!

Daniel 12 opens with Daniel as a very old man—over 90 and probably in some kind of retirement. It says that he was by the river and I see him sitting in a comfortable chair out in front of his riverfront villa. Sitting there, Daniel had a vision and saw two angels with whom he conversed. A part of the conversation (12:8) was, “I’ve heard everything you’ve said but I don’t understand it. How is this all going to end?” Daniel, like most of us, wanted to know what was on the last page of the book! (One of my daughters almost always reads the last page of a novel first! To do this is almost sacrilegious!)

One of the angels said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end” (12:9). The angel talked briefly about the closing of the great tribulation and then spoke again directly to Daniel, “But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days” (12:13).

The words, “Go your way” seem rather curt, dismissive, but they are not, as the angel really was instructing and reminding Daniel that he had a God-given life and a purpose that he was to fulfill. Daniel was being instructed not to get so captivated by the intricacies of prophecy that he had to have an answer and be absolutely clear on every detail.

One of the potential downsides to those who become oversaturated with end-time prophecy is that they lose sight of the primary purpose and focus of the church. We are not called to be end-time prophecy experts but to be watchful and aware and to let those understandings fuel our efforts to share the gospel with the whole world. The unalterable focus of the church is to reach out to the lost and needy with the gospel, and acts of service and anything that replaces that focus, including prophecy, is error!

The angel twice said to Daniel, “Go your way.” The angel was emphasizing, “You are never going to have a complete understanding of the end times—the books are closed for now—what you have is enough. You have a purpose in life that you are to pursue and fulfill. If you die before the end of time then you will be resurrected for your eternal inheritance. You won’t miss anything that’s really important.”

I believe we are to be aware of but not consumed by end-time prophecy. When we allow any area of teaching to consume us, we become a part of the “occupy movement.” This movement did not begin on Wall Street a couple of months back. No, it was birthed in hell and assigned to a religious spirit that took it to lazy churchgoing pew sitters who brought it into the church. The church has been loaded up with “occupiers” for decades—people who breathe the air, take up space, and contribute very little to the forward progress of the church. Occupiers are manifesting a form of unbelief because unbelief brings blindness and inactivity but generates lots of talk and criticism.

“Go your way” was the angel’s instruction to Daniel and is also the Holy Spirit’s message to us. Stay focused, stay active for Him, stay in love with Him and follow Him. He is not an “occupier” because He is always on the go, always moving ahead. And He says to us, “Follow me!”