"YOU WILL REST"

The angel next assured Daniel:  "You will rest." (Daniel 12:13)  What did those words mean?  Well, Daniel knew that death lay ahead of him.  Death has been the inescapable end for all humans, from Adam's day until our own.  The Bible aptly calls death an "enemy." (1 Corinthians 15:26) To Daniel, however, the prospect of dying meant something quite different from what it meant to the Babylonians all around him.  For them, steeped in the complex worship of some 4,000 false deities, death held all manner of terrors.  They believed that after death, those who had lived unhappily or had died violently became vengeful spirits who haunted the living.  The Babylonians also believed in a terrifying netherworld, populated by hideous monsters in human and animal forms.

For Daniel, death meant none of those things.  Hundreds of years before Daniel's  day, King Solomon had been divinely inspired to say:  "As for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all." (Ecclesiastes 9:5)  And concerning one who dies, the psalmist has sung:  "His spirit goes out, he goes back to the ground; in that day his thoughts do perish." (Psalm 146:$)   So Daniel knew that the angel's words to him would prove true.  Death meant rest. No thoughts, no bitter regrets, no torment-and certainly no monsters.  Jesus Christ expressed matters similarly when Lazarus died.  He said:  "Lazarus our friend has gone to rest." -John 11:11.

Consider another reason why the prospect of dying held no terrors for Daniel.  God's Word says:  "A name is better than good oil, and the day of death than the day of one's being born." (Ecclesiastes 7:1)  How could the day of death, a mournful time if ever there was one be better than the joyful day of birth?  The key is in the "name."  "Good oil" could be enormously  costly.  Lazarus' sister Mary once greased Jesus' feet with perfumed oil that cost nearly a year's wages!  (John 12:1-7) How could be a mere name be so precious?  At Ecclesiastes 7:1, the Greek Septuagint says, "a good name." It is not merely the name but what it stands for that is so valuable. At his birth, there is no reputation, no record of fines works, no treasured memory of the name bearer's personality and qualities.  But at life's end, the name signifies all these things.  And it is a good name from God's standpoint, it is far more precious than any material possessions could ever be.

Throughout his life, Daniel did everything in his power to make a good name with God, and Jehovah overlooked none of this.  He watched Daniel and examined his heart.  God had done as much for King David, who sang:  "O Jehovah, you have searched through me, and you know me, You yourself have come to know my sitting down and my rising up.  You have considered my thought from far off." (Psalm 139:1, 2) Granted, Daniel was not perfect.  He was a descendant of the sinner Adam and was a member of a sinful nation. (Romans 3:23) But Daniel repented of his sinfulness and kept trying to walk with his God in an upright way.  The faithful prophet could therefore be confident that  Jehovah would forgive his sins and would never hold them against him. (Psalm 103:10-14; Isaiah 1:18)  Jehovah chooses to remember  the good works of his faithful servants.  (Hebrews 6:10) Thus Jehovah's angel twice called Daniel a "very desirable man." (Daniel 10:11, 19)  This meant that Daniel was beloved of God. Daniel could go to rest satisfied, knowing that he had made a good name with Jehovah. 

Each of us may well ask, 'Have I made a good name with Jehovah?' We live in troubled times.  It is not morbid but simply realistic to recognize that death my overtake any of us at any time.  (Ecclesiastes 9:11)  How vital it is, then, that each of us resolves to make a good name with God right now, without delay.  If we do so,m we need not fear death.  It is a mere rest-like sleep. And like sleep, it is followed by an awakening! 

Next time: "YOU WILL STAND UP" 

From the book: PAY ATTENTION TO DANIEL'S PROPHECY! 1999