Daniel 12.3-The Prophecy of Rewards For Faithful Regenerate Jews Following Their Resurrection
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday August 27, 2014
Daniel: Daniel 12:3-The Prophecy of Rewards For Faithful Regenerate Jews Following Their Resurrection
Lesson # 374
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 12:3.
Daniel 12:3 “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” (NASB95)
“Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven” presents the next prophetic event that will take place after the resurrection of regenerate Israel at the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
“Those who have insight” is the verb śā∙ḵǎl (שָׂכַל) (saw-kal), which means “to possess wisdom” and is used in relation to regenerate Jews who will be raised by Jesus Christ at His Second Advent.
They were wise because they obeyed the gospel and communicated it to others.
This verb śā∙ḵǎl speaks of the wisdom of these Jews in relation to leading others to receiving the imputation of divine righteousness through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
In other words, they are wise because they communicated the gospel to the unsaved who in turn responded in faith to the gospel so as to receive the gift of righteousness.
This is indicated by the explicative clause “those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”
“Will shine brightly” is the verb zā·hǎr (זָהַר) (zaw-har´), which means “to be prominent, to shine” since it pertains to possessing a high status and to be respected among celestial beings.
This verb means that these individuals will be prominent in the millennial kingdom and eternal state in the sense that they will possess a high status in the kingdom of God and will be respected by the elect angels of God.
“Like the brightness of the expanse of heaven” is composed of the preposition k (ךְּ־) (kee), “like” and its object is the noun zō·hǎr (זֹהַר) (zo´-har), “the brightness of” which is modifying the articular noun rā·qîaʿ (רָקִיעַ) (raw-kee´-ah), “the expanse.”
The noun zō·hǎr means “shining” and the noun rā·qîaʿ means “the stellar universe” since it pertains to the stellar universe.
The noun zō·hǎr is the object of the preposition k which is a marker of comparison indicating that it is comparing the prominence of these wise regenerate Jews in the millennial kingdom and eternal state with the stars shining in the stellar universe.
“And those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” clarifies the preceding prophetic statement that those Jews who will be raised by Jesus Christ at His Second Advent and were wise will shine brightly like the brightness of the stellar universe.
This indicates both prophetic statements are speaking of the same regenerate Jews.
It also indicates that that those who are wise and will shine like the stellar universe will be those regenerate Jews who lead the many people to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
This interpretation is indicated by the fact that both prophetic statements speak of these regenerate Jews shining like the stars of the stellar universe.
“Those who lead the many to righteousness” is composed of the verb ṣā·ḏǎq (צָדַק) (tsaw-dak´), “those who lead to righteousness” and the articular form of the adjective rǎḇ (רַב) (rab), “the many.”
The verb ṣā·ḏǎq is in the hiphil stem and means “to make righteous, to cause someone to be righteous.”
It is used with reference to the wise regenerate Jews mentioned in the previous prophetic statement who will be raised from the dead by Jesus Christ at His Second Advent and its subject is many people or the masses of people.
The hiphil stem of this verb is factitive which denotes that these wise Jews who will be raised by Jesus Christ at His Second Advent as the subject will cause many people to enter into the state of being righteous.
Therefore, this verb ṣā·ḏǎq is speaking of certain wise Jews who will be raised by Jesus Christ at His Second Advent leading other people to receiving the righteousness of God.
The articular masculine plural form of the adjective rǎḇ means “the masses, the many” since it pertains to a great body of people and is used of unregenerate human beings, both Jew and Gentile.
The noun kô·ḵāḇ means “stars” referring to a luminary object in the stellar universe.
The articular construction of the word is anaphoric meaning that the word is pointing back to its synonym used in the immediate preceding clause, which is the noun rā·qîaʿ which refers to the stellar universe.
The noun kô·ḵāḇ is the object of the preposition k which is a marker of comparison indicating that it is comparing these wise regenerate Jews who will cause many people to be made righteous with the stars shining in the stellar universe.
“Forever and ever” indicates that those who are wise in Israel who cause many people to be made righteous will shine like the stars “forever and ever” or in other words, “for all of eternity.”
Daniel 12:3 “Soon after this those who are wise will shine like the stellar universe shining. Specifically those who cause the masses to be made righteous, will be like the stars throughout all of eternity.” (My translation)
The elect angel reveals to Daniel that after the resurrection of regenerate Jews which will take place at the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, those in Israel who are wise will shine like the stellar universe shining.
He then clarifies this by identifying specifically what he means by that these Jews are wise.
In other words he then identifies specifically what makes these Jews wise.
They are wise because they cause many people to be made righteous.
They were wise because of the application of this knowledge.
They were wise because they obeyed the gospel and communicated it to others.
It implies that these Jews considered thoughtfully the gospel and wisely valued it enough to seek to understand it and respond appropriately so that it effectively governed their lives.
It also means they valued it enough to share it with others.
The wisdom of these Jews is manifested by the fact that they lead others to receiving the imputation of divine righteousness through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
In other words, they are wise because they communicated the gospel to the unsaved who in turn responded in faith to the gospel so as to receive the gift of righteousness.
Now, in Old Testament dispensations this would involve communicating the Word of God to the unregenerate who in turn responded by exercising faith in Yahweh, the God of Israel who the New Testament identifies as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
During the First Advent of Jesus Christ, the church age and the seventieth week, this would involve regenerate Jews like the apostles communicating the gospel to the unregenerate who in turn responded to the gospel by exercising faith in Jesus Christ.
Those who respond to the Word of God in Old Testament dispensations and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ during the First Advent, the church age and the seventieth week will receive the imputation of divine righteousness.
This results in God the Father declaring them justified.
When the angel describes these Jews as shining like the stars of the stellar universe throughout all of eternity, he is speaking of these individuals being in a state or having been rewarded for their faithfulness.
It means that these individuals will be prominent in Jesus Christ’s millennial kingdom and in the eternal state.
They will possess a high status in the kingdom of God and will be respected by the elect angels of God.
They of course will receive this high status from the Lord Jesus Christ who will reward them for their faithfulness and give them high positions of authority in His millennial kingdom.
These Jews will be rewarded for their faithfulness to the revelation God gave them in whatever dispensation they lived in and as a result they will reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years and on into the eternal state (Daniel 11:33, 35; Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27; Revelation 20:4).
They will live in different dispensations since some will live during the dispensation of Israel, as well as during the First Advent of Jesus Christ.
They will also live during the church age and of course during the seventieth week.
Therefore, some of these Jews who live during the dispensation of Israel are being referred to by the angel here in Daniel 12:3.
They would include those faithful Jews who taught their fellow Jews to be faithful to the Mosaic Law and communicated the prophecies in Daniel 11:21-35 regarding the persecution of the Jewish people under Antiochus Epiphanes IV.
Some of these Jews being referred to in Daniel 12:3 would include the apostles of Jesus Christ and those who faithfully adhered to their teaching during the church age.
Lastly, it would include the 144,000 Jews mentioned in Revelation 7 who lived during the seventieth week.