And from the time that the continual [sacrifice] is taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, [there shall be] a thousand, two hundred, and ninety days.
Daniel ends with a countdown. It starts the moment the daily sacrifice stops and an idol takes its place — so what is this "abomination," and why 1,290 days when verse 7 gave 1,260?
Jesus told His followers to watch for "the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel." Commentators say this verse is the one He meant.
It is the very verse that our Lord quoted in Matthew 24: "So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." The question is, Where does Daniel speak of this? I answer, in verse 11 of this chapter. It is the only verse that properly answers to the one in Matthew.
Daniel 11 also speaks of a similar act. Another writer explains why the Lord did not mean that one.
Our Lord spoke of "the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel" before He described the "great tribulation" (Matt. 24:21). In this He meant verse 11 of Daniel 12, not verse 31 of Daniel 11. Verse 31 describes something of the same kind, but it clearly refers to what took place under Antiochus Epiphanes.
What exactly gets set up, and who sets it up?
"Abomination" means an idol (1 Kings 11:5-7). It is called "the abomination of desolation" because the mass of Jews who have turned away from God will accept it. In return God brings "the desolator" on them — that is, the king of the North... It is the image of the Beast (Rev. 13:11-18). The last head of Western Gentile power will set it up in defiance of the God of Israel, helped by his partner, the Antichrist, King in Jerusalem... It is interesting to observe how the Lord quietly assumes the rebuilding of the temple in the last days.
Why does the daily temple sacrifice stop? One writer points to a broken agreement, and to a rival worship moving in.
But now in the middle of the week, the Roman prince breaks the covenant. The purpose is plain: to replace the Jewish sacrifice with the worship of himself and of the antichrist in the temple... It seems unavoidable that this must be the "abomination of desolation" which Scripture predicts will stand in the holy place. Another verse of Daniel somewhat confirms this view. It makes the two events happen at the same time, since it gives them together as the point from which a certain number of days is counted.
Three figures stack up across the chapter, each measured from the same event.
Verse 7 had already said "a time, times, and half a time" — that is, 1260 days. Verse 11 adds thirty days, one month more. Then verse 12 gives a further point: "Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days." That adds a month and a half more. So we have 1260 days; then 1290; then 1335. From what time do we count them? "From the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up."
Commentators differ on what fills the surplus thirty days. Some see unfinished judgment.
These days exceed by a month the tribulation and the forced interruption of Jewish worship... The extra month is needed to complete the destruction of Israel's enemies. The prophet does not speak of blessing during this period. Judgment must clear the scene of evil and evil men, and the people themselves must be made ready in heart for the full tide of millennial blessing. The days are literal, of course.
Others decline to settle it.
The reason for this is not clear, but it may be to leave time for the gathering of all Israel after the judgment of the Antichrist. The day will make clear the exact meaning of these numbers.
If the countdown began at Jerusalem's fall under the Romans, the promised outcome should already be here.
Has that been the case? Take some past event — say the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Count 1335 days from the time the Romans took the city. Has the blessing really come? It matters little how you take the days. Suppose they are 1335 years from that destruction of Jerusalem. Do you have the blessing of the Jews and the blessing of the saints that God's word describes here? Nothing of the sort. So you have dated it from a wrong starting point.
This number is not decoration. Believers in that day can use it to measure the distance to their rescue.
Note that the setting up of the abomination is the sure signal. It marks the very day. From that event the Jews who believe God may count the very days to their deliverance and final blessing.
- Signal. The idol set up in the holy place is the sign the Lord told His hearers to watch for, and this verse is the one He pointed them to.
- Stop. The ruler of that day halts the temple sacrifice and puts his own worship in its place. Both happen at one moment.
- Start. From that moment — not from any past siege of Jerusalem — Daniel counts every number in this chapter.
- Stretch. The count runs thirty days past the 1,260, and forty-five days beyond that. Some writers give reasons; others leave it open.
- Blessing. The clock does not end in ruin but in the blessing pronounced on the one who waits and arrives.
Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days!
This verse marks a third date at the close of Daniel's book: 45 days beyond the 1,290, and 75 beyond the 1,260. A blessing belongs to whoever lives to reach it. Why does the count run on past the 1,260 days, and what is the blessing at the end? Commentators take up both questions.
The numbers only make sense beside the earlier figures in the same chapter. All three run from one starting point.
What do the "days" at the close of the chapter mean? Verse 11 says, "And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days." In verse 7 the man clothed in linen had already said it would be "for a time, times, and a half" — that is, 1260 days. Verse 11 adds thirty days, or one month more, to the 1260 days. Then verse 12 adds a further point: "Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days." That is a month and a half more. So we have first 1260 days, then 1290, then 1335. From what time do we count them? The answer is, "from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up."
The blessing hangs on the count. So the verse tests any claim that the prophecy is already history.
Apply it to anything past — say, to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus. Count 1335 days from the time the Romans took Jerusalem: has the blessing come? It matters little how you take the days. Suppose they are 1335 years from that destruction of Jerusalem. Even then, do you have the blessing of the Jews and the blessing of the saints that the word of God describes here? Nothing of the sort. What follows? That you have dated it from the wrong starting point. "The abomination that makes desolate" has not yet come. When it does come, in the sense our Lord speaks of, 1335 days follow, and then comes the full blessing.
One explanation is that Israel's enemies fall in more than one blow, so the last of them falls after the 1260 days are over.
The blessing of Israel will not be brought in all at once. The first great turning point will be the destruction of "the king." That takes place when the 1260 days expire. But as we saw in Daniel 11, the king of the north has to be dealt with after "the king." So there is another period of delay. Whether that will coincide with the extra thirty days (1290), or with the further 45 days (1335), I am not prepared to say.
Others say the same gap holds more than judgment. The nation is also cleansed and restored.
Here 45 days are added to the earlier number, so 75 literal days in all come before Israel's full blessing is secured. What a busy two and a half months! The account of judgment will be finished, "the filth of the daughters of Zion" washed away, temple worship restored under new conditions (Ezek. 40), and the people morally cleansed from all defilement in heart and life. Then "blessed is he" who waits and reaches that moment of wonderful blessing for Israel and the earth.
Commentators differ on the reason for the added days, and some admit they do not know.
I do not know why these thirty days are added to the twelve hundred and sixty. The one reason I can see is this: after the half-week ends — the 1260 days during which the Antichrist prospers — thirty more days will still be needed before the final blessing to the Jews comes in. "Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days" — for then the people will clearly be in a state of blessing. But, as I said before, Daniel gives no explanation or detail of this happiness. The aim of the book is to show the care God takes of the remnant while it lives among the Gentiles… Daniel limits himself to saying that they shall be blessed.
The verse gives no picture of the coming happiness, only a reason to hold on.
What Daniel could know was this: the one who waited in patience to the end of the longest period would enter into blessing… God's judgments on man's evil are searching. Yet for the humble and patient there is always blessing at the end.
The one told to wait is not excluded from what he waits for.
The accomplishment of 1335 days has still to be waited for; there shall be full blessing to him who waits and arrives at their fulfilment. Daniel himself shall have his part in this time of glory.
- Count — All three figures start from one event: the regular burnt offering taken away and the abomination set up. 1260 days, then 1290, then 1335.
- Delay — Blessing does not arrive the moment the 1260 days end. Through the extra 75 days enemies still fall and the nation is still cleansed.
- Test — Date the count from any past event, and the blessing never appears. The starting point is still ahead.
- Silence — Writers admit they cannot explain the added days. Daniel learns only that the one who waits is blessed.
- Reward — The blessing belongs to the one who waits and reaches the day — and Daniel, told to wait, is given his own share in it.
But do thou go thy way until the end; and thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.
Daniel's book does not close with another vision of empires. It closes with a personal word to the aged prophet himself. God's last word to him covers his remaining days, his death, and his place in a kingdom he would never see on earth.
The instruction to go marks the close of Daniel's service.
And now the book ends with one last word to the prophet. He had been the vessel of God's mind about the times of the Gentiles and the deliverance of his people; his work is done, and he is now told to leave the scene: "Go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and stand in your lot at the end of the days" (v. 13). Rest was to follow the completion of his labours, and he would have his own special place in the Kingdom at the end of the days… Returning with all the risen saints with Christ in glory, he will stand in his lot. He will occupy the special place assigned him in the kingdom of the One whom he had seen in the night visions as the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven.
God calls the time before the glory rest. Even the grave is only a quiet wait.
That vision closed, as Daniel 12 records, with a plain word to Daniel. He was to go down once more, into a darker eclipse, by nature's standards, than any he had known yet. Death would take him off the scene long before the promised glory arrived, so the last "down" he would ever know was the quiet of the grave. Yet one thought put gold into even that solemn announcement: his waiting time would be a season of rest. A far brighter thought followed. When the glory did dawn and its blessing flooded the scene, he would not be missing, for he would "stand in his lot at the end of days." This prediction entitled him to close his aged eyes on earth with his heart lit by the light of resurrection.
The place of that rest matters less than the fact of it.
Until that time comes Daniel was to rest. It did not matter where on earth — and better still, above the earth… He had the assurance all saints should have: he would stand in his lot at the end of the days.
A "lot" is an allotted portion; the ESV calls it his "allotted place." God promises Daniel a personal place in the kingdom he had seen from far off. He must rise from the dead to take it.
Daniel is to go his way; he should rest, that is, pass off the scene, but stand in his lot at the end of the days. That is, in resurrection he will find his place in the scene of glory that the Lord will bring in. He will receive his position in the glorious kingdom then set up.
Daniel is not a private exception.
"But go your way… and you shall stand in your lot at the end of the days." You shall enjoy all this blessedness. Do not be troubled. God will take care of this, and you shall have your part in it all. We know when Daniel will share in this: at the first resurrection, the resurrection of the saints. He will share it with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all those who have been faithful in every era.
The promise also raises a question about our own portion.
And we too each have our 'lot' at the end. As those who share the place and portion of the church, we know how wonderful that will be. But what about our 'lot' in the coming kingdom of our Lord? That will depend on our faithfulness in service here. If our 'lot' in the kingdom is to be anything like Daniel's, we must do as he did. We must go through the present world in holy separation and devotedness to God.
The shape of the book underlines the point.
It is a beautiful thing to see Daniel alone in the first chapter of his book, and Daniel alone in the last. All the glory of this world passes before us. But the man who stands for God alone at the beginning is the man who will be alone at the end… The world is triumphing now, in this brief day of man. Yet those who are separate to God now will stand alone in that day of blessing.
- Go — Daniel's work as the vessel of God's mind is finished. God tells him to leave the scene without seeing the outcome.
- Rest — God calls the grave a season of rest, not a loss. Where he rests on earth is not the point.
- Stand — the promise assumes resurrection. Daniel must rise to take the place assigned him in the kingdom.
- Lot — a personal portion, shared at the first resurrection with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful of every era.
- Follow — a lot like Daniel's calls for a life like Daniel's. He stood alone for God at the start, and he will stand alone in that day of blessing.