God’s Word for You
Daniel 12:1 The end will come
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, January 28, 2026
The final chapter of Daniel presents the glorious end of God’s holy creation. Those whom God has set aside in view of Christ’s merits and mercy will shine like the brightest stars in the heavens, and those who have rejected God will be flung into eternal punishment, where “the wicked will always continue to be wicked.” God’s people are comforted that although there will be severe trials in the last days, that time will be brought to an abrupt end. It may seem a long time in coming, longer than some might expect, but the end will come. God will not forget his people.
12:1 “At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress unlike anything that has occurred since the first nation came into being until that time. But at that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.
The name Michael means “Who is like God?” He is the angelic being whom God uses to specially protect his people. Here the end time (already introduced at the end of chapter 11 on account of the overthrow of the Antichrist) is brought forward to be described. This is the time Jesus also speaks about in the Gospel: “For there will be great distress, not like anything from the beginning of the world until now—and not like anything that will ever happen again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. See, I have told you ahead of time!” (Matthew 24:21-22, 25).
Notice how the great Michael is described. He is “the great prince, the protector of your people.” In Daniel 10:13 he was also called “one of the chief princes,” one who comes to aid in the unseen struggles that mankind cannot see. Their weapons in this spiritual warfare are the same weapons that we have at our disposal. Not blades or bombs or bullets, but the Word of God, correctly understood and applied. For the favorite weapon of Satan is the twisted word of God, misquoted (Genesis 3:1), taken out of context (Matthew 4:6), and used only to challenge God’s authority and to tempt people to sin or to fall from faith (Job 2:4-5).
The end is described the same way here in Daniel as the words Jesus used: “Unlike anything from the beginning until that time.” There is no comparison. It won’t be like Noah’s flood. It won’t be like the Babylonian exile. It won’t be like David’s battle with the Philistine giant. It won’t be like the plagues, the famines or the wars of history. Now that civilization has seen the damage of the atom bomb and more than eighty years have passed, does that mean that the horrors of the end times will be even worse than that? Of course it will. The horrors our Lord describes are spiritual as well as physical. It will become so oppressive that Christians will be beaten down with threats and lies and all manner of wickedness, until they doubt even their Savior. But the Gospel stands, and the words of the Holy Spirit remain: “When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful flesh, he made you alive together with him. He forgave us all our sins. He wiped out the record of our debt with its regulations which stood against us, which was hostile to us. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).
Who will be the poor Christians who are alive at that time, when things get worse and worse until the faithful wonder how they can possibly stand? If it will be us—you and me—then we must help each other, and pray for the help of Michael and the angels of God who are dispatched to help us and to fight for us. But we must never give up on Christ and his victory in the cross. Don’t fail to see that this verse ends with the Gospel assurance: “Your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.”
This is a comfort for all believers. Since God has given us eternal life in Christ (1 John 5:12), the one who grasps and clings to Christ in faith has this eternal life. And since it is impossible for anyone to be saved without the mercy of God, so also it is impossible for anyone to be saved outside of Christ, for he is God’s mercy in the flesh (John 3:16; 1 Peter 1:3). And therefore it is impossible for anyone who truly believes in Christ to be damned, for Christ affirms the words of Isaiah about faith: “A bent reed he will not break. A smoldering wick he will not put out, until he leads justice to victory, and in his name the nations will hope” (Matthew 12:20-21).
Therefore we await the time when each of us will close our eyes in the sleep of death, knowing that our sinful flesh will then be destroyed, “buried with all its uncleanness, and will come forth gloriously and arise to complete and perfect holiness in a new, eternal life” (Martin Luther, Large Catechism).
Do not be afraid of the end, dear Christian heart. Creation is past, and redemption is perfectly completed. Now the Holy Spirit works in us to carry us through to the end. He works through his community—the church—through which he speaks and works and administers his sacraments to all. The end will not come until the last believer has entered into the fellowship of all believers through baptism or has been brought to faith through the preaching of the word. It is for this reason that sometimes at a baptism I perform I find myself looking out a south window (since I live in the northern hemisphere) to see whether the light grows any brighter outside, as it will when our Savior descends in the clouds in glory, to judge all the world and to bring us home to the place he has prepared for us. Be patient. Be vigilant. Be confident. Be comforted. Behold, he comes.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.