God’s Word for You
Daniel 12:2 Sleepers awake
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, January 29, 2026
2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Why does the verse begin with saying that “multitudes” or “many” will come alive on the Last Day? Won’t everyone rise? There are at least three ways of explaining this, and I will present them all as fairly as I can, but I am convinced that the third is the correct explanation.
1, The “multitudes” could imply that “others” will not be raised in the end, and this might correspond with the views of some Christians that there will be two resurrections in the end. But this does not fit the theology of the Bible, because only one resurrection is proclaimed whenever there is a clear proclamation about the Last Day (1 Corinthians 15:52). Also, the idea of “some” as a meaning for “multitudes” does not fit the clear words of Jesus. For when he quotes this passage, he says, “A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29). Jesus understands that Daniel wanted to emphasize the large number of people raised, but Jesus makes the completeness of the resurrection part of his point. This is one of the clearest examples of Scripture interpreting Scripture.
2, A second attempt to understand the Hebrew text rearranges the subject and verb and wonders whether there is a distinction being drawn between those who will be raised (from the dust of the earth) and those who are still living on the Last Day, but this does not really fit the clear grammar of the verse. Paul, however, does address this difference when he says, “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51).
3, The clearest understanding is that “many” or “multitudes” here simply stands for “all” (as Jesus has interpreted it) which is a common enough point of grammar throughout the Bible. For example, Paul says: “Through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19), where it is true that all were made sinners through the disobedience of the one man (as Paul explains: “In Adam all die,” 1 Corinthians 15:22). Also Hebrews 9:28, etc.
After they are raised, the Angel tells Daniel, they will enter into their eternal state. This agrees with the rest of the Scripture. The Bible does not definitely say anything about our appearance in the resurrection, including any differences as to our apparent age. Some think that we will all appear to be men and women in the prime of life, based on Philippians 3:21 which says that we will be “like Christ’s glorious body” (Christ died and rose when he was in his early thirties). Others like Augustine think that we will rise with a youthful body, whether anyone died as a child or in their old age. Still others think that everyone will be the age that they were when they died, so that there will be children in heaven as well as adults and the elderly, but all in excellent health. This last opinion (held by several of our theologians) is based on Revelation 11:18 and 20:11-12.
Without any passage and entirely based on reasons of my own (but known to the Lord God), I think that it is likely that we will generally have youthful bodies, but that children, especially those who died in their infancy, will appear in various forms of age: now little children, now grown men and women, now young people, and now children again, laughing and playing among the trees of Paradise and causing delight and laughter and the praise of God in everyone’s hearts. I would not insist on this, but it simply seems unthinkable that an infant miscarried in the womb, or that died at birth or very young, would be sentenced, as it were, to live out eternity as an undeveloped infant, or not even as a toddler.
The final two phrases of our text affirm that believers will enter into paradise, and that unbelievers will be forever damned. In the wise words of Professor Jeske, “Those who spent their earthly lives evading God will experience a different fate in the great resurrection of the last day. They will hear God say, ‘Very well, you wanted to be without me; now be without me—forever!’ And they will be sentenced to perpetual divorce from God—a never-ending existence of ‘shame and everlasting contempt’” (Daniel, p. 220). Our Lutheran Confession agrees with our verse completely: “Our Churches teach that at the consummation of the world Christ will appear for judgment and will raise up all the dead. To the godly and elect he will give eternal life and endless joy, but ungodly men and the devil he will condemn to be tormented without end” (Augsburg Confession).
Our place without any doubt is with Christ on account of his blood shed on the cross, and the merits of his perfect life without sin and the resurrection of the body. All of our sins are wiped away in his blood; the judgment holds nothing to fear for anyone with faith in Christ. Trust in him, and you and I and those we love will be united with him for all eternity, to laugh and sing God’s praises and pick and eat the fruit of the Tree of Life for our pleasure and eternal satisfaction.
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.