Summary

The Holy Spirit shows in Daniel 12:1 how the archangel Michael played a major role in the time of the great tribulation under Antiochus and then he draws the line to the time until Christ’s return to the earth. In this verse we arrive, so to speak, at the day when the Lord Jesus returns.

The Holy Spirit is making us look very far into the future now—much further than the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. He takes us to the day when the Lord Jesus will return to earth on the clouds. He shows us that before the Lord Jesus will put his feet on the earth again, all the people who have lived will rise from the dead. That is indeed a multitude of people.

Then it becomes clear that God’s children who have had to endure the injustice of Antiochus, the believers who have lived and perhaps even died under other oppressors and persecutors, have not lived and believed in vain. The injustice that has happened to them upon the earth will then be made right. It is not the case that injustice and demonic temptation would simply disappear without impunity into death and lost in the grave forever.

The sleeping in the dust points to those who have died. They will rise from their sleep, from death. This will happen on the day the Lord Jesus returns. The Lord Jesus himself said of that day, Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28–29).

When everyone is resurrected, those who have lived with Christ and have been willing to suffer for him are separated from those who have lived without Christ as their Lord. Then it becomes clear that for some the resurrection will be glorious and for others it means even more misery. The Lord Jesus says the following about this: “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:40–43).

Many people who persecuted Christ’s church and who did much injustice were powerful and honoured in this world. When they return to the earth with their bodies, there will be great misery. Contempt and abhorrence will characterize their lives forever. They will disappear from the earth forever.