Deeper Reflection
Daniel 10 to 12 is a prophetic narrative of a single visionary experience of Daniel, which begins and ends with the same scene: at “the bank of the great river…the Tigris” (Dan 10:3-4; v.5). At the ending scene, two unnamed heavenly beings were conversing with each other while Daniel was listening.A climactic question was asked: “How long will it be until the end of these wonders?” (v.6). In Hebrew, the “wonders” (pele) is “closely related” to the “monstrous” (pala)¹⁷ things that the climactic Antiochus-like anti-God king speaks against God (Dan 11:36). So, “these wonders” – “unheard-of-things,”¹⁸ or “awesome events…are those that came to a climax in Dan 11:29- 12:3, involving Antiochus’ laying his hand on the realm of God”¹⁹ and the unprecedented “time of distress” (Dan 12:1). “When will ‘these wonders’ end?” is “a legitimate question and not at all a matter of idle curiosity”²⁰ .“We live in an age in which we expect everything to be fixable. There is a pervasive air of pragmatic optimism in our society” that in every way and every day we can get better and better.²¹ This kind of mentality is also found among God’s people. Popular are teachings and books on “X number of simple effective ways” to this and that for successful Christian living. “We have reduced sanctification and spiritual victory to a technique to be learned and mastered, almost like a golf swing.”²² The discipleship question “How long?” is a question for God to answer. “How long?” underscores the reality that things cannot be easily or quickly fixed as and when and how we want it to be.

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¹⁷ Tremper Longman, 286 ¹⁸ Tremper Longman, 286 ¹⁹ John E. Goldingay, Daniel, Word Biblical Commentary (Word Books, 1989), 309 ²⁰ Dale Ralph Davis, The Message of Daniel, The Bible Speaks Today (IVP, 2013), 165 ²¹ Iain M. Duguid, Daniel, Reformed Expository Commentary (P&R, 2008), 209 ²² Iain M. Duguid, 210