I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?”
9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.
“Go your way, Daniel.” In other words, “Don’t try to pry into secrets that are beyond your understanding.” God has not given us all the information we might like to have about the future, and what the Lord has not told us, we can be happy not to know. God sometimes tells us what Jesus told his disciples at his ascension: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority” (Acts 1:7). God’s entire revelation will be understood completely only when the events prophesied actually take place.
The time when these things will be understood is referred to simply as “the time of the end,” the final end of all things. With the Lord’s coming, the mysteries will be cleared up and the questions answered that have often bothered Christians as they wonder about the Lord’s guidance of history.
God has not withheld from us any information we need to know in order to be prepared to face the end of the world. This truth is an important one for Christians living at a time when many are setting dates for Christ’s return and are quick to point to certain events of modern history as specific fulfillments of Bible prophecy. We can be confident that when God’s good time comes, we will understand, even though there is so much now that we can see only dimly and darkly.
Although the Angel did not give Daniel the specific information he requested, he did give him a general description of what the future will hold for the children of God. Difficult times, even persecutions, await God’s people in the future. But under God’s guidance, they are purifying judgments, not condemning ones. Through them, God will bring it about that “many will be purified, made spotless and refined.” What a hopeful truth for the church of God to hold onto as it faces a future that looks anything but bright for God’s people!
“The wicked will continue to be wicked.” The enemies of God and of his people will continue their blind opposition to God’s revealed truth. They will not understand his grand design for this world and its people. But “those who are wise will understand.”