Daniel 12:13 But go you your way till the end be: for you shall rest, and stand in your lot at the end of the days. These words reveal to Daniel three things important to be known. How God's servants leave of their life-work here. What happens to them immediately it is over. What is their final condition. We have all of us work to do here. Some have to labour, others to direct; some to teach, others to learn; some to rule, others to obey. But whatever our place is, God has put us in it. God gives us our duties in it. Daniel's had been a long and difficult life. Having a good record, it was a happy day at last when his warfare was accomplished, and he got the message of his dismissal, "Go thy way; faithful servant, thy work is done." That the end we wish for those we love and live for. At the eventide of our time, God will say to each labourer in his turn, "Go thy way." What, then, is our intermediate state? Does the Scripture inform us where we are to be, what we are to do, until the end come? Thou shalt "rest" — not in death, or unconsciousness. But this rest will not be then complete. The triumph of the Church, though assured, will not yet be consummated. When the resurrection trumpet of the great jubilee shall sound, then the people of God shall enter each upon the full enjoyment of their inheritance, long ordained and set apart; and to each it shall be true, "Thou shalt stand in thy lot." You know the reality of life is not in life's uncertain goods, but in the hopes and promises of God; and those are happy who, walking through the wilderness, use them for a well, and the pools are filled with water. The child of God, walking in an honest, simple faith, may have to face many trials, but never the trial of hearing, like the king, "Thy hope is at an end, thy kingdom is departed from thee." The longer he works on the brighter grows his promise, and though he go his way and take his rest, he will stand again in his lot at the end of days. (T. F. Crosse, . D. C. L.) Parallel Verses KJV: But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. |
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