Fourth Quarter 2004 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"Daniel"

Insights to Lesson 13a:
The Time of the End
(or the End of Time)
December 18-24

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

Let’s never say “good-bye” to the prophet Daniel! The best we could do these past three months in studying him was to get a little acquainted with him, enough to be hungry for more.

There’s a little tidbit of encouragement in 10:12 that we need to notice before we go on. Daniel has been praying earnestly, not for himself, but for his people, and it seems that his prayers are not being answered. Doubtless you too have had that same experience, so that you are tempted to give up and stop praying about it.

This time an angel encourages Daniel: “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them” (10:12).

1. Daniel has been praying for others, not for himself; therefore his prayer comes under the purview of the apostle John’s rule for successful praying: “This is the assurance we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us [that’s exactly what Daniel was doing]. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5:14, 15). Daniel’s prayer was a perfect fit!

2. Daniel was simply asking God to do what He had promised (that surely is according to God’s will, isn’t it?)—to deliver His people from Babylonian or Persian captivity since their captivity years were over (9:2; Jer. 29:10).

3. Therefore Daniel kept on praying. So we, you and I, must persevere in prayer while we examine our motives. Don’t begrudge the time needed.

4. So deeply concerned is Daniel that he goes into the fasting mode for three weeks. That’s important, not because tightening our belts arouses God’s pity: what happens is that fasting clears our minds for more sensitive awareness of what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us.

5. A total fast for three weeks would debilitate anyone (which God does not want us to do to ourselves ever). Daniel’s was a partial fast that accomplishes a good purpose. No meat, no intoxicating liquor or substance or artificial stimulant, and NO DESSERTS (“pleasant bread,” KJV—that’s easy—pies, cake, ice cream, etc.). For three weeks Daniel bypassed the sweets table, ate only simple food to preserve life and health. He ate to live, not vice versa. (There are better things to live for now than to eat, thank God! The Bible expresses no respect for pigs.)

6. Did God reward Daniel? Yes, with a mind clear enough to engage in conversation with an angel, and with the Son of God (see vss. 13-21, and on through chapters 11, 12!). Forget about living that extra seven years so you can go golfing longer. Following Daniel’s example will teach us how to live on this great, antitypical Day of Atonement, so we can walk with the Lord day by day and live in the very “atmosphere of heaven.” That’s reward enough. Thanks, Daniel.

ARE YOU PERPLEXED BY DANIEL 12 (OR 11)?

Our Quarterly has at least twice told us that it’s “difficult in places” and may “seem confusing.” But Revelation 10:2 assures us that Daniel is “a little book open” (KJV), which must mean the opposite of “difficult” or “confusing.” The KJV says that Daniel “set [his] heart” to understand what the Holy Spirit was trying to tell him; that means self-denial. He was rewarded with “skill and understanding.” Our pioneers “set their heart” to understand, and the Lord gave them a remarkably clear grasp of Daniel’s prophetic truth. Ellen White spent her lifetime encouraging our people to trust the Lord’s leading of our pioneers in their search for truth. Vast confusion usually accompanies new theories that contradict what the Lord has led us to understand in the past.

We have a document that reproduces a manuscript from the White Estate that contains no less than 50 Ellen White endorsements of Uriah Smith’s book, Daniel and the Revelation. She never claimed infallibility for him, of course not; but she did claim that the Lord blessed his book and will continue to make it valuable until the close of time. As the 1888 Message Study Committee upholds the “most precious message” that “the Lord in His great mercy sent” us, we also plead with our fellow church members to pay closer attention to the prophetic understandings that the Lord gave our pioneers. Yes, Daniel can be understood—otherwise, the Lord would never have given that treasure to us.

So, please, until the Lord returns, cherish your “hunger and thirst for righteousness” as revealed in the book of Daniel. And let our pioneers whom the Lord richly blessed with understanding, help you with what the Lord promised Daniel—“skill and understanding.”

—Robert J. Wieland

You may download a copy of this special document. Some may object that since Uriah Smith rejected the 1888 message, therefore (they say) his book has no value. But his prophetic understandings were clear, his fault was hardening his heart against the self-humbling message of 1888. If only he had humbled his soul to accept that “beginning” of the latter rain and the loud cry, his pen would have been a mighty witness in lighting the earth with the glory of the Revelation 18 message.

Read the study notes for lesson 13, part 2