Then suddenly a severe tribulation comes for the faithful remnant of God’s people. This time of oppression comes to bring about purity among the wise.
This is the real separation. It will become clear who truly continues to resist the adaptation to the world because of their covenant with the Lord. Those who want to live with the Lord will clearly stand out. And those who have joined them out of impure motives will then fall through the cracks again. They are not enlightened from their hearts by living close to the Lord.
This will all happen at a time appointed by God. This time is still a long way off when Daniel is writing these words. The end times mentioned here is the time when this prophecy will be fulfilled; when this prophecy will come to its purpose, its fulfillment. Everything remains in God’s hands. That is how it was then, and that is how it remains throughout history. Christ preserves his church even in the most severe tribulations that take place before Christ’s return. Very aptly you read about it in Matthew 24:21–22: For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
The difficult things that come upon the world take place also to purify the wise.
It means that when we fall down, we will get back up again and we will learn not to trust in ourselves but in God. In this way we learn from our own stumbling. Then we will also learn to live based on God’s promise in Psalm 125:1–2: Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.
35 and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.